Sung Hui Kim. “Reimagining the Lawyer’s Duty to Uphold the Rule of Law.” University of Illinois Law Review, vol. 2023, no. 3 (2023): 781-830.
This article critiques the prevailing view within the legal profession that lawyers fulfill their duty to uphold the rule of law simply by complying with formal legality. It argues that this minimalist interpretation is insufficient—especially in legalistic autocracies, where regimes maintain the appearance of legality while undermining the substantive values of the rule of law. In such contexts, lawyers who narrowly adhere to client advocacy and formal rules risk becoming complicit in the erosion of legal and democratic norms.
The article advances an alternative, teleological account of the rule of law, rooted in the republican ideal of restraining arbitrary power. It calls on lawyers to engage more substantively with the moral and civic purposes of the legal system, rather than viewing legality as a technical checklist. In backsliding democracies, this thicker conception of legal duty becomes critical: attorneys must act not only as technicians of the law, but as stewards of legal integrity and guardians against authoritarian abuse.