This article explores the complex role of legal reform within authoritarian regimes, focusing on activist lawyers in China who strive to use the law to protect rights and promote social change.
David Kennedy’s critical legal scholarship challenges the traditional monopoly lawyers and legal scholars hold over defining law’s purpose, highlighting law as a form of political struggle rather than a neutral system.
This article argues that attorneys have a duty to act as guardians of justice in a legal order fraught with moral ambiguity and political pressure.
The article argues that the legal profession’s shift to “neutral partisanship” in 1969 undermines lawyers’ ability to uphold justice and democracy by suppressing moral and ethical engagement.
Emil Bove, a former Trump defense attorney and current DOJ official, has come under fire after being nominated by Donald Trump for a lifetime seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. In a scathing letter to the Senate, a group of former federal prosecutors denounced Bove as the “worst conceivable nominee,” …
In a heartfelt farewell after 30 years on the Wisconsin Supreme Court, Chief Justice Ann Walsh Bradley emphasized judicial independence and the importance of public trust in the courts. Reflecting on her tenure, she highlighted changes in the court’s composition and role, yet underscored enduring dedication to the rule of law. Known for her principled …
A decade after China’s largest crackdown on human rights lawyers—the 2015 “709 incident”—legal professionals and activists report that government control over the legal system has intensified under Xi Jinping. While once there was space for lawyers to defend civil rights within China’s own legal framework, today those involved in sensitive cases face harassment, surveillance, and …
In Turkey, the lawyer defending jailed Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu has himself been imprisoned amid what he calls a politically motivated purge. Mehmet Pehlivan, who represents İmamoğlu (President Erdoğan’s main rival), was detained in June on charges of belonging to a “criminal organization,” a charge he insists is entirely fabricated. Pehlivan told Reuters from prison …
Yueduan Wang, “The More Authoritarian, the More Judicial Independence? The Paradox of Court Reforms in China and Russia.” University of Pennsylvania Journal of Constitutional Law, Vol. 22, no. 2 (2020): 529-560. Summary: Drawing conclusions largely from democracies, existing theories often positively associate judicial independence with political competition. This Article argues that a negative relationship exists …
Tate C. Neal and Stacia L. Haynie, “Authoritarianism and the Functions of Courts: A Time Series Analysis of the Philippine Supreme Court, 1961–1987.” Law & Society Review, vol. 27, no. 4 (1993): 707–40. Summary: Focusing on the independent and powerful pre–martial law Philippine Supreme Court, the authors investigate the impact of the establishment and breakdown …