Legal training and the reshaping of French elite: lessons from an ethnography of law classes in two French elite higher education institutions

Abstract

The article examines the nature of contemporary legal training in two French elite higher education institutions – one dedicated to prepare for legal careers in the economic field, the other one to train top civil servants – in order to assess the role of legal knowledge in the shaping of French contemporary elites. Based on observations of law classes in these schools, it sheds light on the kind of knowledge, skills, and values transmitted through this education. The article shows that in both schools law is presented as a major tool of power, which reinforces its traditional place as governing knowledge. This goes along with the promotion of an instrumental vision of the law, encouraging playing with the law to serve political and financial goals. In this regard, these schools elude the traditional French conception of law as a self-sufficient, coercive and neutral system of positive norms. Though observations show that this move away from French patterns is not fully accomplished in the schools, the promotion of law as a means to profitability and efficiency favours a convergence in the modes of thinking of both economic and administrative elites.

Keywords:

• Elite schools
• legal training
• observation in class
• power elite
• France

Acknowledgements

The authors thank Vincent Aubin, Marianne Constable, Sébastien Le Pipec, the anonymous reviewers, and the editors of the issue for their feedbacks on previous versions of this article.

Notes

1. The French legal system is divided between private law which applies to private individuals and private bodies, and public law which defines the structure and the functioning of the government as well as the relationships between the State and individuals.

2. Founded in 1799, the Council has two major prerogatives. As a judge, it controls the legality of administrative acts. As such it sets up and organises public law. Through its counselling function, it advises the executive branch on the preparation of bills, ordinances and many decrees, thus participating in, and controlling, their drafting.

3. The research project was funded by the Agence Nationale de la Recherche from 2009 to 2012. Coordinated by Liora Israël and Rachel Vanneuville, the research gathered sociologists, political scientists and jurists. The present article benefits from the work of the Elidroit team that we warmly thank.

4. Lewis Kornhauser, professor at New York University School of Law, is a well known expert of economic analysis of law; he was visiting professor at Sciences Po Law School at the time of our observations.