French For Lawyers

This course has been devised to give English-speaking lawyers and law students an understanding of French legal terminology, to enhance their linguistic skills and to familiarize them with the main concepts of French law. Aimed at those with A Level French or the equivalent, it provides coverage of the key areas of the French legal system: the court system and court proceedings; the legal profession; law of contract; conveyancing, successions and wills; and company law. Authentic and up-to-date French legal documents combine with a variety of language exercises to provide users with the necessary skills and knowledge to allow them to function effectively within a French legal environment.

Principles of French Law offers a comprehensive introduction to French law and the French legal system in terms which a common lawyer can understand. The authors give an explanation of the institutions, rules and techniques that characterize the major branches of French law. The chapters provide the reader with a clear sense of the questions that French lawyers see as important and how they would answer them. In the ten years since the publication of the first edition, French law has changed in significant ways. European Union law and the European Convention on Human Rights have had a significant impact, especially on procedural law and family law. There has been a new Commercial Code, major legislation on divorce, succession and criminal law, as well as significant developments in the Constitution. In addition, there have been considerable developments in the case-law and a much discussed proposal for reform of major areas of the law of obligations. The chapters present not only the rules of law, but, where appropriate, the principles and values underlying the system. Considerable use is made of juristic literature and of examples from French case law. The book is designed for students studying French law at both undergraduate and postgraduate level, and as preliminary reading for students about to study in France. It will also serve as an initial point of reference for scholars embarking on a study of French law.

Lucien Karpik presents, in contrast to market-oriented understandings of lawyers in England and the United States, a radically different interpretation of lawyers' action in society which has politics at its core. Based on the French experience from 1274 until 1994, this book stimulates areappraisal of lawyers' collective action in English-speaking countries as well as on the Continent. In a unique and lively combination of history and sociology, the book follows the evolution of French lawyers from the birth of the bar to the present day. Their history encompasses three different forms of the profession and three distinct types of lawyers. The 'State bar', which existed in theremote past, was based on individual navigation between the courts of justice and the royal court. The 'Public' or 'Classical bar', which lasted from the end of the seventeenth century to the middle of the twentieth century, was centered around politics and as a result became one of the builders ofthe liberal State. Finally, contemporary lawyers are increasingly dominated by the 'Business bar', and their practices form the basis of a systematic study of the market, hierarchy, work, sociability and self-government. The author advances and tests a wide range of new theories: on collegial power; on collective action, by explaining how a profession can become a lasting political movement or a how weak political actor can become a ruling elite; on the state and intermediate groups; on professional markets, byproposing an 'economics of quality' in place of neoclassical economics. He also presents creative perspectives on lawyers' stratification and sociability. Through the vivid presentation of a singular case, and the blending of qualitative and quantitative methods, this book develops an original perspective in socio-legal studies and historical sociology. It also makes important contributions to the sociology of professions, to the study of collectiveaction, and to economic and political sociology.

This title was first published in 2001. This work explores the professional standards of the French bar as it moves, rapidly but with misgivings, into a world of competition, organization and globalism. It focuses on the ideology of French legal ethics in its historical and social contexts, rather than the details of the rules governing avocats. Those rules are technical and, in many respects, similar to the rules in effect in the USA. But lawyers in France and the United States base their rules on strikingly different pictures of lawyers. French avocats classify their duties as a series of virtues - probity, honour and delicacy - to follow one official formulation. By contrast, lawyers in the USA, to judge from the way they justify their rules, consider their fellows scoundrels who, without regulation, would cheat their clients, opposing parties and other lawyers. The author's goal is to describe, in their cultural and institutional contexts, the professional ideals of the French bar as it remembers its past and faces its future.

Aims to provide comprehensive coverage of the French legal system. The text is comparative in its approach to institutions and principles in English and French law and concentrates on the "law in action". The author uses analysis to highlight the differences between the two legal systems.

Divided into concise units which contain introductory text relating to different aspects of the French legal system, this book features translations and key legal vocabulary and a range of exercises and activities.

This work combines a theoretical approach to legal translation with a practical exposition of how the relevant principles may be applied to the French legal system. The author also includes a discussion of what is meant by "legal language" and available techniques for translating legal terms.