ABSTRACT

Government lawyers have been rather neglected by scholars interested in the workings of the legal profession and the role of professional groups in contemporary society. This is surprising given the potential for them to influence the internal workings of an increasingly legalistic and centralised state. This article aims to partly fill this gap by looking at the way that lawyers employed by the government and the administrators they work with talk about their jobs. It draws on the findings of a large-scale empirical study of government lawyers in seven departments, funded by the ESRC and undertaken by Philip Lewis between 2002–2003. By looking at lawyers in bureaucracies the interviews conducted revealed much about the work that government lawyers do, their relationship with other civil servants and the subtle influences on policy that they are able to exert.

摘要

对法律职业的运作以及专业团体在当代社会中的作用感兴趣的学者对政府律师的忽视。鉴于它们有可能影响日益法治化和集中化国家的内部运作，这令人惊讶。本文旨在通过研究政府雇用的律师和与他们合作的管理人员谈论其工作的方式来部分弥补这一差距。它借鉴了ESRC资助，Philip Lewis在2002-2003年间对七个部门的政府律师进行的大规模实证研究的结果。通过采访官僚机构中的律师，进行的访谈揭示了很多关于政府律师所做工作的信息，