University of Wisconsin–Madison

Month: October 2025

Khalil (2024). “This Country has Laws”: Legalism as a Tool of Entrenching Autocracy in Egypt.

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Khalil, H. M. (2024). “This Country has Laws”: Legalism as a Tool of Entrenching Autocracy in Egypt. American Behavioral Scientist, 68(12), 1597-1615. https://doi.org/10.1177/00027642241267936 (Original work published 2024)  This article investigates the role of legalism and legal processes in entrenching autocratic rule in post-revolution Egypt. In the aftermath of the spectacular street protests that swept Egypt, …

Trochev (2024). “Pliant Courts, Recalcitrant Chiefs and Judicial Clientelism in Authoritarian Regimes”.

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Trochev, Alexei, ‘Pliant Courts, Recalcitrant Chiefs and Judicial Clientelism in Authoritarian Regimes’, in Björn Dressel, Raul Sanchez-Urribarri, and Alexander Stroh-Steckelberg (eds), Informality and Courts: Comparative Perspectives (Edinburgh, 2024; online edn, Edinburgh Scholarship Online, 18 Sept. 2025), https://doi.org/10.3366/edinburgh/9781399535250.003.0005, accessed 6 Oct. 2025. How and why do some autocracies have pliant courts yet recalcitrant judicial chiefs? Trochev argue that is an unexpected consequence of empowering the …

Cummings (2025). “The Autocratic Legal Playbook”.

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Cummings, Scott L., The Autocratic Legal Playbook (August 14, 2025). UCLA Law Review, Forthcoming, UCLA School of Law, Public Law Research Paper No. 25-31, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=5392409 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.5392409 This Article examines the development and rapid innovation of the autocratic legal playbook in America: the strategic blueprint used to destroy democracy through law. It argues that this …

Batesmith & McEvoy. (2025). “Closeted” cause lawyering in authoritarian Cambodia.

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Batesmith, A., & McEvoy, K. (2025). “Closeted” cause lawyering in authoritarian Cambodia. Law & Society Review, 59(3), 463–495. doi:10.1017/lsr.2025.29 Using Cambodia as a case study, this article examines cause lawyering in a repressive political environment. It focuses on “closeted” cause lawyering, a practice they define as the intentional pursuit of change through the legal process that is …

Kwong (2025). “The Legal Profession in Battle: Cause Lawyers Versus State-Embedded Lawyers in Hong Kong’s Democratization”.

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Kwong, Y. H. (2025). The Legal Profession in Battle: Cause Lawyers Versus State-Embedded Lawyers in Hong Kong’s Democratization. Social & Legal Studies, 34(4), 580-601. The existing literature has long recognized that cause lawyers play important roles in fighting for political justice. However, the implications of how the state responds to these lawyers have yet to be comprehensively …

Kroncke (2025). “Legal Complicity in an Age of Resurgent Authoritarianism”.

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Kroncke, J. J. (2025). Legal Complicity in an Age of Resurgent Authoritarianism. Geo. J. Legal Ethics, 38, 75. Faith in end of history narratives emergent at the end of the twentieth century carried  powerful  ethical  implications for  engagement   with  authoritarian regimes. The  most widespread   of these narratives was modernization  theory: the idea that economic development  would invariably …

Wendel. (2022). “Lawyer shaming”.

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Wendel, W. B. (2022). Lawyer shaming. U. Ill. L. Rev., 175. The Lincoln Project’s effort to shame law firms working on behalf of the Trump campaign is only the most recent example of the public criticism, even vilification, directed against lawyers who represent unpopular clients. The legal profession is mostly unified in its response, which appeals …

Litman (2020). “Lawyers’ Democratic Dysfunction”.

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Litman, L. (2020). Lawyers’ Democratic Dysfunction. Drake L. Rev., 68, 303. As part of the symposium on Jack Balkin and Sandy Levinson’s Democracy and Dysfunction, this Article documents another source of the dysfunction that the authors observe-elite lawyers’ unwillingness to break ranks with other elite lawyers who participate in the destruction of various norms that are integral …

A Global Legal Coalition to Defend Judges and Democracy

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As threats against judges intensify across the United States—from swatting and doxxing to direct intimidation—lawyers are mobilizing to protect the judiciary and the rule of law. In a recent interview with Federal News Network, attorney Paul Kiesel discussed the origins of Speak Up for Justice, a coalition of legal professionals advocating for judicial safety and …

Implications Of The DOJ Targeting The President’s Critics

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Fresh Air — “Implications Of The DOJ Targeting The President’s Critics” Legal scholar and former U.S. attorney Barbara McQuade explains how President Trump’s push for the Justice Department to pursue his political opponents (e.g., James Comey) erodes long-standing norms separating law enforcement from politics, threatening prosecutorial independence and the rule of law. The episode lays out …