Loughlin: The Idea of Public Law
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2230.2005.541_4.x |
| Author | J. W. F. Allison |
| Published date | 01 March 2005 |
| Date | 01 March 2005 |
REVIEWS
W. Wesley Pue and David Sugarman (eds),Lawyers and Vampires: Cultural
Histories of Legal Professions,Oxford: Hart Publishing, 2003, 410pp, hb
d50.00, pb d27.50.
First, a few quibbles. The editing and/or copy-editing falls down badly in places
and mars the overall e¡ect of what is otherwise awell-producedbook in keeping
with the high production values which Hart Publishing has set for itself. Given
the somewhat overlapping nature of some of the contents, an index would have
been helpful.Some of the typographical errorsgrate (eg‘dinning’for ‘dini ng’) and
there are some infelicitous expressions (most irritating was‘feeding o¡of ’). More
seriously, the collection has a somewhat amorphous structure. The editors’
attempt to impose some shape on the contributions ^ the book is divided into
four sections entitledThe Formation of Lawyers, Lawyers and the Liberal State,
Work and Representations and Lawyers and Colonialism ^ seems a little forced
and does not domuch to addressthis problem.The editors make a valiant attempt
to pull it all together in their introduction; I will comment separately on that
towards the end of this review, after attempting to give something of the £avour
of the substantive contributions.
The title of thebook, while no doubt racy, i s misleading. One contribution, by
Anne McGillivray, discusses‘law modernityand professionalism in Bram Stoker’s
Dracula’; for the rest there is nothi ngabout vampires, not even by way of allusion.
The sub-title, Cultural Histories of Legal Professions, infuses some of the contri-
butions rather more than others. In terms ofdelivering on this promise, the book
succeeds to a degree in using culture to counterbalance the now mainstream the-
ories of professionalismwith their emphasis on marketcontrol as espoused by the
likes of Rick Abel. But the geographical and cultural references are somewhat
limited ^ the UK, France, Germany, Sweden, Canada, Australia, the USA, Italy
and Switzerland. Nothing on India, Pakistan, China, Japan, anywhere in Africa,
or even,with the limited exceptionof Italy (because it comprises onlypart of one
chapter), Mediterranean societies.
Having said that, even with this limited sample of comparators, heavily
weighted towards northern Europe and the British diaspora, there are generic
problems in producing e¡ective ‘cultural histories’ which are visible in many of
the contributions. In particular, how much ‘cultural’ history can be presupposed
by an author constrained by word limits and necessarily required to talk about
the legal profession? How many sedimentations of past professional experience,
political experience, religious experience and so on need to be uncovered and laid
out in order for the reader to place the narrations of events related to the legal
professionin an appropriate culturalcontext? This is a ¢ne balancing actand some
of the contributors succeed better than others in achieving it.
rThe Modern LawReview Limited 2005
Published by BlackwellPublishing, 9600 Garsington Road,Oxford OX4 2DQ,UK and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA
(2005) 68(2)MLR 338^348
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