律师制度的建立与近代中国社会变迁

The Establishment of Lawyer System and Social Transformation in Modern China

律师制度的建立是近代中国社会变迁的产物,其直接原因来自于近代中国社会变迁过程中的外籍律师影响,社会发展自身需求及法律改革。作为自由职业者的知识阶层,律师群体的这种特殊身份显现出近代社会由农业社会向工商业社会转型的时代特点。而其所具有的新的教育背景又决定了他们与传统士大夫阶层的思想理念截然不同。他们不仅仅是新法律的执行者,同时也是新法制的建设者,是近代中国历史进程中促进社会转型的重要力量。

As the result of the social transformation in modem China, domestic lawyer system came into being because of the influence of foreign lawyers in the social transformation, the inherent need of social development and law reform. Lawyers are freelance intellectuals, with the special group identity reflecting the social transformation from an agricultural society to an industrial one. Their new education background largely determined their diametrically different ideas from that of the traditional scholar- officials （Shi Da Fu）. Lawyers are not only executors of new laws but also establishers of a new legal system and important contributors to social transformation.