ABSTRACT
Before we can ask whether there are too many lawyers we must answer several prelimi-
nary questions: whom do we consider lawyers, and what does and should influence
their number? The term ‘lawyer’, which English-speakers take for granted, has no
obvious equivalent in many other languages. Civil law countries have the category
of ‘jurist’, including everyone with a law degree; but a very large proportion of law
graduates would not be recognized as lawyers in common law countries. Terms like
‘avocet’,1 ‘avvocato’,2 ‘abogado’3 or ‘anwalt’4 refer to lawyers with rights of audience
in court – but this criterion would exclude jurists employed by corporations and civil
servants, who are considered lawyers in common law countries. Notaries in civil law
countries perform many of the functions of common law lawyers. Japan is famous for
having few bengoshi compared with its population; but many of the functions of
lawyers in other countries are performed by tax accountants, patent attorneys, and
judicial and administrative scriveners in Japan.5 Any discussion of numbers, therefore,
must be framed in terms of function rather than title.
