EBOOK Professors of the Law:Barristers and English Legal Culture in the Eighteenth Century

What happened to the culture of common law and English barristers in the long        eighteenth century? In this wide-ranging sequel to Gentlemen and Barristers: The        Inns of Court and the English Bar, 1680-1730, David Lemmings not only anatomizes the        barristers and their world; he also explores the popular reputation and self-image        of the law and lawyers in the context of declining popular participation in        litigation, increased parliamentary legislation, and the growth of theimperial        state. He shows how the bar survived and prospered in a century of low recruitment        and declining work, but failed to fulfil the expectations of an age of Enlightenment        and Reform. By contrast with the important role played by the common law, and        lawyers, in seventeenth-century England and in colonialAmerica, it appears that the        culture and services of the barristers became marginalized as the courts        concentrated on elite clients, and parliament became the primary point of contact        between government and population. In his conclusion the author suggests that the        failure of the bar and the judiciary to follow Blackstones mid-century        recommendations for reforming legal culture and delivering the Englishmans        birthrights significantly assisted the growth of parliamentary absolutism        ingovernment.