COURT SYSTEMS AND LAWpowers that of contempt. A litigant or witness who
refuses to follow court processes or who refuses to
carry out the will of the court may be subject to the
contempt power, which can include fines and
imprisonment. This degree of power is quite un-
known in civil law countries where it is felt to give
the judge what amounts to discretion to impose
criminal penalties in civil cases. The civil law judge
must, in comparable cases, limit himself to draw-
ing on the person’s property which may, of course,
be felt by the person, as no less painful than a
period in prison might be for others.
THE LEGAL PROFESSIONSIn the United States, lawyers, as well as the general
public, think of the legal profession in the singular,
though specialties are recognized. This is especial-
ly the case, as noted earlier, since such a high
proportion are in private practice (well over 70
percent) as compared, for example, to only 33
percent in Germany, 42 percent in Colombia and
only 23 percent in Chile. The United States also
has a very low proportion of the profession acting
as judges (only 3 percent) compared to 17 percent
in Germany, 23 percent in Chile, and 42 percent in
Colombia. (Clark 1982, figures are for the 1960s
and 1970s). In Germany, 70 percent of positions in
general administration are filled by persons
trained in law.
Apart from differences in distribution, the
path to a legal career is very dissimilar in different
cultures. In the United States, aspiring lawyers go
to a graduate law school, then sit for the bar exam
(often after an intensive cram course that prepares
them for that exam), then after passing the bar (in
most states, the success-rate percentage is over 60
percent, and higher for first-time exam takers) he
or she enters directly into practice in a firm, in a
small-firm partnership, or as a solo. There they
learn as they go along. Persons may, and many do,
shift around from service in a government depart-
ment to a public prosecutor office to the corporate
law office of a private firm, or elsewhere. They may
run for political office and may end up being
rewarded for service by appointment or election
as judge of a lower-level court and, for a few, high
judicial office in a circuit or even a supreme court.
In England, the distinction between solicitor
and barrister, though less rigid than in the past,
continues. The would-be barrister takes his pupilage
under a barrister in one of the Inns of Court where
he may, under good conditions, receive an appren-
ticeship and possible appointment after passing an
examination. Only barristers may argue cases in
the higher courts. Solicitors maintain direct con-
tact with clients, collect fees, and assist barristers in
their work. Solicitors are now being allowed to
argue cases in some lower courts. Some barristers
may develop honored reputations, a few being
chosen as judges as the culmination of a distin-
guished career. There is almost no shifting to
other careers on the part of barristers and very
little among solicitors. In that respect, they resem-
ble the lawyers in civil law countries.
In civil law countries, a young lawyer must
make an early choice as to whether he wishes to be
a judge, a government lawyer, a regular lawyer in
private practice, a public prosecutor, or a notary. If
he finds later he made a mistake, exit to another
legal career is difficult, and does his experience in
one does not translate into credits in another. He
spends his whole career in the one field, a process
that often leads to rivalry and conflict between the
fields. An attempt to deal with this problem is
made in Germany (and some other countries) in
the referendarzeit, where a lawyer spends two or so
years of practical training as a government lawyer,
a judge, and in private practice. If lawyers choose
to be judgse, they will begin their career in a low-
level court but may move up as openings occur.
Although this career process isolates the judges
who take on guild-like characteristics as civil ser-
vants, it also means that judges are often better
trained than is frequently the case in the United
States (where it is not uncommon for judges to
have had no judicial experience whatsoever). Fur-
ther, the quality of judging may be higher since
candidates are chosen from among the best law
school graduates. At the top in constitutional courts,
for example, the quality of decision making is the
equal of that found anywhere.Public prosecutor in Civil law countries are
much like U. S. district attorneys, but they also are
required to represent the public interest in pro-
ceedings between private persons in court situa-
tions. In Italy and France, the prosecutor is also a
member of the judiciary, allowing some shifting
back and forth from prosecutor to judge. Some
degree of shifting back and forth also takes place
in Germany. Those lawyers working for the gov-
ernment in administrative positions are career