The Worlds Cause Lawyers Make - by Austin Sarat & Stuart Scheingold (Hardcover)

About the Book

The Worlds Cause Lawyers Make examines the connections between lawyers and causes, the settings in which cause lawyers practice, and the ways they marshal social capital and make strategic decisions.

Book Synopsis

The study of cause lawyering has grown dramatically and is now an important field of research in socio-legal studies and in research on the legal profession. The Worlds Cause Lawyers Make: Structure and Agency in Legal Practice adds to that growing body of research by examining the connections between lawyers and causes, the settings in which cause lawyers practice, and the ways they marshal social capital and make strategic decisions.

The book describes the constraints to cause lawyering and the particulars that shape what cause lawyers do and what cause lawyering can be, while also focusing on the dynamic interactions of cause lawyers and the legal, professional, and political contexts in which they operate. It presents a constructivist view of cause lawyering, analyzing what cause lawyers do in their day-to-day work, how they do it, and what difference their work makes. Taken together, the essays collected in this volume show how cause lawyers construct their legal and professional contexts and also how those contexts constrain their professional lives.

From the Back Cover

The study of cause lawyering has grown dramatically and is now an important field of research in socio-legal studies and in research on the legal profession. The Worlds Cause Lawyers Make: Structure and Agency in Legal Practice adds to that growing body of research by examining the connections between lawyers and causes, the settings in which cause lawyers practice, and the ways they marshal social capital and make strategic decisions.
The book describes the constraints to cause lawyering and the particulars that shape what cause lawyers do and what cause lawyering can be, while also focusing on the dynamic interactions of cause lawyers and the legal, professional, and political contexts in which they operate. It presents a constructivist view of cause lawyering, analyzing what cause lawyers do in their day-to-day work, how they do it, and what difference their work makes. Taken together, the essays collected in this volume show how cause lawyers construct their legal and professional contexts and also how those contexts constrain their professional lives.

Review Quotes

"The research Sarat and Scheingold present here substantially transforms our understanding of cause lawyering and the legal profession and makes an important contribution to the field. The essays in this volume represent a wide variety of cause lawyering settings, in terms of political orientation, nationality, and structure of practice." --Richard Abel, UCLA School of Law

"Yet again, Sarat and Scheingold advance the cause of cause lawyering as surely the most successful collective project on the legal profession. This volume of illuminating case studies from across the world will inspire a new generation of morally and politically committed lawyers to recognize their prospects of bringing justice to an unjust world." --Terence C. Halliday, Northwestern University and Research Fellow for the American Bar Foundation

About the Author

Austin Sarat is William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Jurisprudence and Political Science at Amherst College. Stuart Scheingold is Professor Emeritus of Political Science at the University of Washington. Together, Austin Sarat and Stuart Scheingold are the authors of Something to Believe In: Politics, Professionalism, and Cause Lawyering (Stanford University Press, 2004) and the editors ofCause Lawyering: Political Commitments and Professional Responsibilities (1998) and Cause Lawyering and the State in a Global Era (2001). Theywere granted the National Equal Justice Library's 2004 Reginald Heber SmithAwardin recognition oftheir work on cause lawyering.