Sarat and Scheingold (1998), Cause Lawyering: Political Commitments and Professional Responsibilities
This book is a cross-national study of lawyers who devote themselves to serving political causes.
This book is a cross-national study of lawyers who devote themselves to serving political causes.
This article examines the ‘resolutions movement,’ a popular political mobilization led by lawyers that operates through legal discourse and targets legal objectives as a form of resistance to contemporary US counterterrorism policies.
In the face of rising autocratic populism, this article underscores the vital role of critical lawyering in upholding the independence and integrity of constitutional courts, which are key pillars of democratic governance.
This article provides a synthetic overview of prior research into the postwar criminal convictions of lawyers, specifically judges and prosecutors, who operated in Nazi-occupied Polish territories.
On June 10, 2025, the International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute (IBAHRI) and Lawyers for Lawyers condemned the arbitrary detention and reported torture of Ugandan lawyer Agather Atuhaire and Kenyan activist-journalist Boniface Mwangi by Tanzanian authorities. The two were arrested in Dar es Salaam while observing the treason trial of opposition leader Tundu Lissu. Although …
This book examines how legal practitioners can both enable and resist democratic erosion, depending on how they interpret, wield, or subvert the law.
In backsliding democracies or states engaged in controversial military actions, attorneys serve as key actors in holding governments accountable to international law, interpreting complex legal standards like the crime of aggression, and ensuring legal debates remain part of public discourse.
This article highlights the complex legal and ethical challenges attorneys face when addressing state-sanctioned actions like targeted assassinations especially in the context of national security and counterterrorism.
In backsliding democracies facing such state behavior—whether through repression, abuse of power, or militarized actions—attorneys play a critical role as defenders of legal order and democratic accountability.
This article argues that moments of political upheaval shape the legal profession’s collective identity, showing how divergent experiences under authoritarianism in Taiwan led judges, lawyers, and prosecutors to develop distinct normative commitments based on their roles in resisting or navigating state power during democratization.