This book focuses on the history of the provision of legal aid and legal assistance to the poor in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries in eight different countries. It is the first such book to bring together historical work on legal aid in a comparative perspective, and allows readers to analogise and contrast historical narratives about free legal aid across countries. Legal aid developed as a result of industrialisation, urbanization, immigration, the rise of philanthropy, and what were viewed as new legal problems. Closely related, was the growing professionalisation of lawyers and the question of what duties lawyers owed society to perform free work. Yet, legal aid providers in many countries included lay women and men, leading at times to tensions with the bar. Furthermore, legal aid often became deeply politicized, creating dramatic conflicts concerning the rights of the poor to have equal access to justice.
Author(s): Felice Batlan, Marianne Vasara-Aaltonen
Series: World Histories of Crime, Culture and Violence
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Year: 2022
Language: English
Pages: 345
City: Cham
Acknowledgements
Praise for Histories of Legal Aid
Contents
Notes on Contributors
List of Figures
List of Tables
Introduction: Understanding the History of Legal Aid in an International and Comparative Perspective
Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century Legal Aid
The Origins of Legal Aid
Legal Aid in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries
From National Historiography to a Comparative View
A Shift of Perspective
Legal Aid, Politics, and Society
Legal Aid and the Legal Profession
Conclusion
Bibliography
Printed Sources
Secondary Literature
Part I: Grand Histories of Legal Aid
The Persistent Question of Legal Aid in the Professional Development of Russian Lawyers
Introduction
The Roots of Legal Aid in Tsarist Russia
The Soviet Experience
The Diverse Market of Legal Aid in Today’s Russian Federation
Conclusion
Bibliography
Legislation and Proposed Regulation
Online Sources
Printed Sources
Secondary Literature
From pro Deo to pro Pecunia. An Institutional History of Legal Aid in Belgium
Introduction
The History of the Exemption of Costs of Judicial Proceedings
Legal Aid by Lawyers
Origins
The Offices of Free Consultation in Belgium: A Long Period of Continuity (1832–1967)
The Times Are Changing (1967–1980)
State-Financed Legal Aid (1980–Present)
The Long-Term History of Legal Aid in Belgium Visualised (1841–2016)
Conclusion
Bibliography
Archival Sources
Legislation
Case Law
Printed Sources
Online Sources
Secondary Literature
The Historical Evolution of Legal Aid in China from the Perspective of Globalisation (1890–2003)
Introduction
The Era of the Late Qing Dynasty (1890–1911)
The Era of the Beijing Government (1912–1927)
The Period of the Kuomintang Government (1928–1949)
The Period of the People’s Republic of China (1949–2003)
Discussion and Conclusion
Bibliography
Printed Sources
Online Sources
Secondary Literature
Part II: Growing Needs and New Providers: Legal Aid at the Fin de Siècle
For Workers and for the Disadvantaged: Legal Advice Centres in Germany from the Late Nineteenth Century to the Early Twentieth Century
Introduction
Background to the Development of Extrajudicial Legal Aid: Industrialisation and Social Legislation
The Extrajudicial Legal Aid of the Catholic Church and the Free Trade Unions
The Legal Advice Centres of Charitable Organisations and Municipalities
Legal Protection Centres for Women
Development of Legal Advice and Information for Workers and for Economically and Socially Disadvantaged People
The Legal Regulation of Extrajudicial Legal Services
Attitudes of Practising Lawyers Regarding Extrajudicial Legal Aid and the Beginning of Professionalisation
Conclusion
Bibliography
Archival Sources
Legislation
Printed Sources
Online Sources
Secondary Literature
“To Poor and Rich Alike”: Legal Modernisation, the Women’s Movement, and Legal Aid in Late-Nineteenth-Century Finland
Introduction
Industrialisation, the Growing Working Class, and Philanthropy
Legal Modernisation and the Budding Legal Profession in Late-Nineteenth-Century Finland
Newspapers and the Legal Aid Question
The Finnish Women’s Association Steps Up
The Helsinki Poor’s Advocate
Conclusion
Bibliography
Archival Sources
Printed Sources
Newspapers
Secondary Literature
Lawyers Providing Legal Aid in Print: Legal Question and Answer Columns in Finnish Newspapers Around 1900
Introduction
Background: National Awakening, Finnish-language Newspapers, and Emerging Civil Society
Early Development of Legal Question and Answer Columns, 1860s–1880s
Regular Legal Question and Answer Columns, 1890s and Beyond
Actor Perspective: The Experts
What Kind of Legal Questions Were Being Asked
Actor Perspective: The Inquirers
Actor Perspective: The Newspapers
Conclusion
Bibliography
Printed Sources
Newspapers and Periodicals
Secondary Literature
Part III: Politics, Memory, and the Writing of History
The Organisation of l’Assistance Judiciaire, the Politics of Poverty, and the Rewriting of History in Nineteenth-Century France
Introduction
The Question of Legal Aid in the Mid-nineteenth Century
L’assistance judiciaire Under the Third Republic
Conclusion: The Haunting of L’assistance Judiciaire and the Future of Legal Aid
Bibliography
Printed Sources
Secondary Literature
Training and Disciplining Lawyers Through Legal Aid: Chile, 1932–1960s
Introduction
Legal Aid and the Bar, from Symbiosis to Parasitism
Training and Disciplining Lawyers Through Legal Aid
Law Interns: Training Future Lawyers
Disciplining Abogados de Turno
Epilogue: The Crisis of Legal Aid and the Demise of the Chilean Bar Association
Bibliography
Archival Sources
Interviews
Printed Sources
Legislation
Secondary Literature
Archival Confrontations and Rewriting the History of Legal Aid in the U.S.
The Standard Narratives and Assumptions about Legal Aid in the U.S.
Confronting the Archives, Disciplines, and Ourselves
Piecing Together Stories: The New York Legal Aid Society
The Search for Women’s Organisations and Lay Lawyers
Finding the Smoking Gun: Deleting Women from the History of Legal Aid
Confronting Opposition
Absences and Fantasies for the Future
Bibliography
Archival Sources
Printed Sources
Online Sources
Secondary Literature
Index
