What it means to be a communist lawyer

From historical communist lawyers to the founders of the Syndicat des Avocats de France (1960s-1970s)

Abstract

The objective of our article is, from archives and interviews, to grasp the plurality of the professional-engagement articulation, which has aroused some interest in the social sciences in recent years, of communist lawyers. The idea defended is that this articulation depends on the political and professional trajectories of the Communist lawyers on the one hand and on the historical configurations of the PCF on the other. Two generations of lawyers are considered, the one who joined the PCF before the Second World War and entered the Liberation Bar, and the one who succeeds it, entered the PCF and the Bar after the War. The second generation includes the founders of the Syndicat des Avocats de France (SAF). Created in 1973, the SAF marks the Party’s willingness to count for the Bar. More than that, he helped redefine the commitment of Communist lawyers. The article discusses the world of Communist lawyers in this new configuration and then focuses on the creation of FAS. The relations between the Union and the Party inform us about the role that the PCF intends to give to lawyers in those years. These relationships do not survive the end of the PCF opening configuration, tensions between the two organizations promote the empowerment of the PCF’s SAF while national and international events participate in the communist disengagement of the founders.