Legal Culture in the Age of Globalization

This volume of essays examines how the legal systems of the chief countries of Latin America and Mediterranean EuropeArgentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Venezuela, France, Italy, and Spainchanged in the last quarter of the 20th century. Through essays that provide a wealth of data on the courts and the legal profession in these countries, the book attempts to relate changes in the operation of the legal systems to changes in the political and social history of the societies in which they are embedded. The details vary, in accordance with the particular history and structure of the countries, but there are also key commonalities that run through all of the stories: democratization, globalization, and changes in the legal order that seem to be worldwide; more power to courts; a growing legal profession; and the entry of women into what was once a masculine club.

Lawrence M. Friedman is Marion Rice Kirkwood Professor of Law at Stanford Law School. Rogelio Pérez-Perdomo is Dean of the Law School at the Universidad Metropolitana, Caracas, Venezuela.