9320858 SARAT This project will convene an international conference of sociolegal scholars to examine the role of the legal profession in social and political processes. The conference will focus on the involvement of the legal profession, in various countries and in the international arena, in developing a wide variety of rights claims and other policy goals. A special focus is the transnational development of human rights claims. Three questions will be addressed. First, what parts of the legal profession engage in these activities and why do they seek to use their legal practice to these ends? Second, what are their strategies and tactics and how do they differ (if at all) from those of conventional practice? Third, what are the conditions that facilitate or inhibit the political uses of legal practice? A number of social scientists across the world who have been studying these questions will present the results of their research at the conference. These papers and the other proceedings of the conference will be published as a book. ***
