The Impact Of Professional Lawyers In The Judiciary

Legal profession has to a large extent promoted the development of common law. No matter in which field of common law, activities of professional judges and lawyers can be easily identified. The professional lawyers began to play vital roles in judicial practice as soon as they came into being. They actively participated in almost every area of judicial practice, exerting substantial influence on the judicial practice in England by their knowledge and talent. Especially, we can never exaggerate the contributions that the professional lawyers have made to criminal justices.In criminal justice, the barristers helped change the criminal trial from 'inquisition' to adversary by their privileges that they had the exclusive rights to audience in higher courts. In that course, barristers developed cross examination which would have a profound impact on criminal trial. It's hard to imagine that cross examination would come out and develop without barristers.Barristers also figured out a set of rules, called rules of evidence, which could not only be applied to criminal justice, but also could be used in civil justice. The impact exerted by the rules of evidence on modern judicial practice is beyond estimation.The reasons for such influence are that:first, the lawyers are a highly professional group, which means highly specialization. That's, from the perspective of sociology, legal knowledge is a sort of power which can influence the judicial activities. Second, legal community was formed after professional lawyers appeared. Thus the originally scattered lawyers gathered. The legal community was not only the people's aggregation, but also the aggregation of a spirit and idea which had an impact on the judicial process. Third, self-regulatory organizations were established. The barristers'self-regulatory organization, Inns of Court, assumed the responsibilities of education and administration of barristers. Inns of Court were organizations that united the barristers, and which could protect barristers'rights.Focusing on the barristers in 18th century England, this paper, which is divided into four parts, presents the impact exerted by professional lawyers on judicial practice in England. The first part of this paper outlines the legal profession and legal community.And the second part gives a brief introduction to the rise of the professional lawyers as well as the rise of barristers in England. It can be found that as soon as professional lawyers appeared, they began to play an important role in judicial practice in England. The third part, based on the Old Bailey Session Paper, details the barristers who were active in criminal trial. Through case studying, a lot of first hand materials are employed in this part to show how the barristers influenced judicial practice.The fourth part of this paper seeks to explain the reasons for such influence, from the perspective of professionalization, as well as sociology and social psychology.