William D. Rogers. “Power to Law: It’s Not as Bad as All That.” Wisconsin International Law Journal, vol. 23, no. 1 (2005): 39-48.
This article explores the often-overlooked role of attorneys in democracies under threat. In times of political backsliding—when institutions weaken, rights erode, and authoritarian tendencies rise—lawyers frequently stand at the front lines, navigating the gray space between professional duty, moral conviction, and political pressure.
Rather than portraying attorneys simply as tools of a failing system or heroic resisters, this book paints a more complex picture. It examines how legal practitioners can both enable and resist democratic erosion, depending on how they interpret, wield, or subvert the law. Drawing from real-world examples across jurisdictions in crisis, the book reveals how attorneys—through litigation, advocacy, complicity, or quiet defiance—shape the trajectory of democracy itself.
Power to Law argues that law’s power depends not just on the texts of constitutions or the rulings of courts, but on the choices of those who practice it. And those choices, while fraught, are not as bleak—or as powerless—as they might seem.