Tamir Moustafa. “Law and Courts in Authoritarian Regimes.” Annual Review of Law and Social Science, vol. 10, (2014): 281–299. This article surveys emerging research on the role of courts in authoritarian regimes, challenging earlier assumptions that they function solely as instruments of repression. It highlights how courts can serve as tools of governance, shape interactions …
Ethan Michelson. “Lawyers, Political Embeddedness, and Institutional Continuity in China’s Transition From Socialism.” The American Journal of Sociology, vol. 113, no. 2 (2007): 352–414. This article examines how Chinese lawyers navigate professional challenges by developing and relying on political embeddedness, defined as their bureaucratic, instrumental, or personal ties to state actors. Drawing on data from …
Mary E. Gallagher. Authoritarian Legality in China: Law, Workers, and the State. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 2017. This book explores how authoritarian regimes may adopt democratic legal institutions to reinforce their rule, using China’s protective labor laws and judicial access as a case study. It analyzes how Chinese workers mobilize these laws and under …
Lynette J. Chua. “Pragmatic Resistance, Law, and Social Movements in Authoritarian States: The Case of Gay Collective Action in Singapore.” Law & Society Review, vol. 46, no. 4 (2012): 713-748. This article examines how legal strategies shape advocacy under authoritarian rule through a qualitative study of Singapore’s gay movement. It analyzes how activists engage in …
Yueduan Wang. “Embedded Supervision: China’s Prosecutorial Public Interest Litigation Against Government.” Regulation & Governance, (2024): 1-41. This study challenges the assumption that diminished institutional autonomy necessarily weakens legal oversight in authoritarian regimes. Focusing on prosecutor-led public interest litigation in China, it shows that legal professionals can, under certain conditions, enhance their influence over state agencies …
Yueduan Wang and Ying Xia. “State-Sponsored Activism: How China’s Law Reforms Impact NGOs’ Legal Practice.” Law & Social Inquiry, vol. 49, no. 1 (2024): 451–77. This study explores how attorneys and law-related NGOs navigate legal opportunities in China amid ongoing democratic backsliding. Following “law-based governance” reforms that professionalized the judiciary, expanded legal aid, and granted …
A federal appeals court judge, Jeffrey Sutton, dismissed a judicial misconduct complaint the United States Department of Justice filed against James Boasberg, ruling that the department failed to provide sufficient evidence to substantiate allegations that he made improper remarks about Donald Trump during a closed-door meeting of the Judicial Conference of the United States. The …
In this column, Anita Chabria profiles James Cook, an Oakland civil rights lawyer who has been spending months in Minneapolis helping people swept up in a federal crackdown—protesters, immigrants, and even U.S. citizens—often pro bono. The piece argues that while street clashes dominate headlines, the quieter legal battle over detentions, due process, and government transparency …