THE STUDY OF THE INDIAN LEGAL PROFESSION.

The last two centuries have witnessed a worldwide movement toward centralized, bureaucratic, professionally-staffed legal systems, sponsored by and closely allied with nation-states. The intimate involvement of lawyers in the emergence of modern nations has been recognized, but there has been little systematic comparative study of them. This issue of the journal "Law & Society Review" contains a series of studies of one of the largest of these professional groups, Indian lawyers. These studies were prepared for a Conference on the Comparative Study of the Legal Profession with Special Reference to India, sponsored by the Committee on Southern Asia Studies of the University of Chicago, held at the Moraine-on-the-Lake Hotel in Highland Park, Illinois during August 10-12, 1967. Rather than viewing the legal system as a body of rules, it was proposed to view it as a body of men, who they are, what they do, how they interact with one another and with other social groups. It was felt that an inquiry of this kind would provide a forum for exchange among lawyers, social scientists, and Indianists whose interests converged on the Indian legal system.