Tamir Moustafa. “Mobilising the Law in an Authoritarian State: The Legal Complex in Contemporary Egypt.” In Fighting for Political Freedom: Comparative Studies of the Legal Complex and Political Liberalism. Edited by Terence C. Halliday, Lucien Karpik, and Malcolm M. Feeley, pp. 193-218, Oxford, U.K: Hart Publishing, 2007.

This chapter examines the Egyptian legal profession as a historically central actor in struggles over political liberalism and authoritarian consolidation. It traces how, in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Egyptian lawyers and judges were deeply embedded in national political life, closely tied to liberal institutions, judicial independence, and a relatively pluralistic political order. Lawyers occupied cabinet positions, led nationalist movements, and helped institutionalize the rule of law through strong professional associations such as the Lawyers’ Syndicate and Judges’ Association.

The 1952 Free Officers’ coup marked a decisive authoritarian turn, disrupting the liberal legal order and subordinating the legal complex to executive power. In the decades that followed, Egyptian lawyers and judges operated within an increasingly constrained political environment, struggling to preserve judicial independence and individual rights against regime encroachment. The chapter situates the legal profession as both a site of resistance and a battleground for state control, illustrating how professional organizations, courts, and legal norms can become focal points of contestation in backsliding or authoritarian regimes. It highlights the enduring tension between legal professionalism and executive domination in semi-authoritarian contexts.