66

The regulated professions have been a highly topical subject for a while now. Considered from an economic perspective their methods of functioning apparently hinder a return to growth. In this unusual context it is necessary to re-situate the French legal and judicial professions within Europe. This approach could allow the widespread idea of the French specificity to be tested, with its narrowness and lack of influence and competitiveness in what some call the “legal services market”. From a strictly structural point of view, this article shows how the French legal and judicial professions stand out more clearly from the States with the same legal traditions than they do from more distant States, such as Anglo-Saxon or Scandinavian countries. Another article in the next issue of the Cahiers will focus on functional specificities.