Noha Aboueldahab. “Transitional Justice as Repression and Resistance: Practices in the Arab World.” Journal of International Criminal Justice, vol. 21, no. 4 (2023): 701-717. This article analyzes how transitional justice in the Arab World operates as both a mechanism of state repression and a form of legal resistance, particularly in the wake of the Arab …
Eva Pils. “From Independent Lawyer Groups to Civic Opposition: The Case of China’s New Citizen Movement.” Asian-Pacific Law & Policy Journal, vol. 19, no. 1 (2017): 110-152. This article explores how lawyers in authoritarian and backsliding regimes, specifically China, shift from legal professionals to civic activists in response to systemic institutional dysfunction. The article centers …
Steve Bachmann. “Lawyers, Law and Social Change.” N.Y.U. Review of Law & Social Change, vol. 13, no. 1 (1984): 1-50. This article explores the complex relationship between lawyers, law, and social change, raising a central question for both legal professionals and activists: can law serve as a meaningful tool in the pursuit of justice? The …
Sida Liu, Ching-Fang Hsu, and Terence C. Halliday. “Law as a Sword, Law as a Shield. Politically Liberal Lawyers and the Rule of Law in China.” China Perspectives, vol. 2019, no. 1 (2019): 65-73. This article investigates how politically liberal lawyers in China and Hong Kong understand and utilize the concept of the rule of …
Hualing Fu. “The July 9th (709) Crackdown on Human Rights Lawyers: Legal Advocacy in an Authoritarian State.” Journal of Contemporary China, vol. 27, no. 112 (2018): 554-568. This article examines the 2015 crackdown on human rights lawyers in China, situating it within the broader political context of increasing authoritarian control. It analyzes the emergence and …
Umut Z. Türem. “Professional Liquidation in the Context of Autocratic Legalism: Lawyers, Class, and Status in Turkey, 2002–?.” Law & Social Inquiry, First View (2025): 1-32. This article argues that discussions of autocratic legalism must include the legal profession alongside the judiciary, using Turkey as a case study. It shows that in contexts where the …
Ya-Wen Lei. The Contentious Public Sphere: Law, Media, and Authoritarian Rule in China. Princeton, U.S.: Princeton University Press, 2018. This book explores how China’s authoritarian state, through law, media, and the Internet, has unintentionally fostered a growing and contentious public sphere. Despite censorship and civil society restrictions, this public sphere has enabled citizens to engage …
Heidi Nichols Haddad and Lisa McIntosh Sundstrom. “Foreign Agents or Agents of Justice? Private Foundations, Backlash Against Non-Governmental Organizations, and International Human Rights Litigation.” Law & Society Review, vol. 57, no. 1 (2023): 12-35. This article critically examines the claim behind Russia’s 2012 “Foreign Agents” Law that foreign funding drives NGO agendas, focusing on human …
Kathryn Hendley. “Legal Dualism as a Framework for Analyzing the Role of Law Under Authoritarianism.” Annual Review of Law and Social Science, vol. 18, no. 1 (2022): 211-226. This article reexamines Ernst Fraenkel’s concept of the dual state, proposing the idea of legal dualism as a useful framework for understanding law under authoritarianism. Legal dualism …
Freek Van der Vet. “‘When They Come for You’: Legal Mobilization in New Authoritarian Russia.” Law & Society Review, vol. 52, no. 2 (2018): 301-336. This article investigates how Russian lawyers respond to escalating state repression under the country’s “new authoritarian” legal regime, marked by restrictive laws on NGOs, surveillance, and treason. Drawing on interviews, …