The French law bourgeoisie in the 19th century

The law professions are used by other categories as a social ladder but they preserve the highest functions for the scions of law practitioners. Their persistent prestige also rests on the kept scarcity of the positions, i.e. a regression of the population of closed professions (solicitors and notaries) and a real but belated growth of open professions (mostly barristers). The gap increases between the law bourgeoisie, whose heirs own the capital necessary to wait for a position or to get the best ones, and the law petite bourgeoisie, which depends mainly on academic titles. At the turn of the century, the law bourgeoisie is no more based on an hereditary social reproduction but wages a conscious self-defense, supported by the Malthusian attitude of law professors.