Panel 4: Dynamics and Changes in Legal Education: The Training of Elites in Perspective

[Panel proposed and organized by Liora Israel, bringing French law-and-society scholars studying legal education together with U.S. scholars]

Chair:

Liora Israel (Ecoles des hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris)

Papers:

Are Top Civil Servants Good Lawyers? Debates on Law Training at the ENA
Emilie Biland (CNRS France), Rachel Vanneuville (CNRS)

How to Transform Young Law Graduates into Good Judges?
Anne Boigeol (ISP/CNRS/ ENS Cachan)

A Structural Perspective on Legal Education: From the Reproduction of Social Capital to the Political Competition both Within and Between States
Yves M Dezalay (CNRS – MSH Paris)

What Is a “Good Lawyer”? Contemporary Debates on French Law Schools
Cédric Moreau de Bellaing (CMH (CNRS-ENS-EHESS)), Rachel Vanneuville (CNRS), Myriam Ait-Aoudia (Sciences Po Bordeaux)

Abstract:

Legal education is at the cornerstone of dynamics of social power and shifts in the role of law in society. This subject is thus of peculiar interest in relation to current changes both in social structures and in legal cultures. In particular, liberalization, globalization, and other social processes, appear to affect the ways in which law is being considered as a useful tool for national and international elites. More precisely, the type of law to be studied, the selection of students as well as their future fields of activity are subjects of intense reflections. We will consider those questions through various empirical examples, focusing on factors including international competition between universities, the changing nature of the State in relation to the judiciary, as well as evolving legal standards in the context of globalization.