Through several reports, the European Commission stressed the view that the constitutive rules of liberal professions might be illegimate protections against competition: therefore, as an example, alleviating the traditional rules organizing the profession of lawyers within a professional order would create a “market for legal services” and induce lower prices for consumers. That view does not resist serious scrutiny, starting from the evidence that — even if we follow standard economic theory — the effect of competition upon prices should never be considered independently from the effect upon quality; And the handling of law by lawyers, encounters deep coordination problems, at the level of quality, which the dynamics of a market is not expected to be able to solve but which can find appropriate answers through the dynamics of a professional order.
Abstract
English
Authors
Sophie
Harnay
Camille
Chaserant
Olivier
Favereau
Emmanuel
Lazega
Franck
Bessis
Lucien
Karpik
Christian
Bessy
Cite
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