La nouvelle presse juridique et les métiers du droit

In: Actes de la recherche en sciences sociales, Volume 101, Issue 1, p. 63-76

Abstract

The New Legal Press and the Redefinition of the Legal Professions
This article describes the emergence in the late 1970s of three new American law journals and studies their influence on legal journalism, the law and the legal profession. By giving space to a much wider range of subjects than had previously been the case in the tradi-tional specialized press, and by adopting a more aggressive and irreverent tone, they revolutionized the whole notion of legal journalism and opened up a new era in law. In challenging the habits of secrecy and the traditional reserve of the old WASP legal elite, the new law press beeame the voice of a new, more commercial form of professionalism, which was needed at a time when the market was becoming more competitive. These new publications beeame prominent during a period of change in the legal professions in the United States, marked by the rationalization of production and the development of a sense of common interests among lawyers at national level.