The essay situates China’s Human Rights Lawyers within authoritarian legality studies, revealing how rights lawyers navigate China’s courts to pursue social activism amid the state’s efforts to use law while maintaining political control.
Structure of the Legal Profession
Oko (2000), “Consolidating Democracy on a Troubled Continent: A Challenge for Lawyers in Africa”
The article argues that lawyers are essential to Africa’s democratic transitions, but must overcome past associations with authoritarian regimes to regain public trust and fulfill their reformative potential.
Kapinga (1992), “The Legal Profession and Social Action in the Third World: Reflections on Tanzania and Kenya”
The legal professions in Tanzania and Kenya, despite operating under repressive state control, have played a crucial activist role in challenging authoritarianism—unlike their more individualistic counterparts in the West.
Shafqat (2019), “Civil Society and the Lawyers’ Movement of Pakistan”
This article analyzes how lawyers drove Pakistan’s 2007–2009 judicial movement, but civil society’s framing made its democratic impact possible.
Schaaf (2021), Litigating the Authoritarian State: Lawful Resistance and Judicial Politics in the Middle East
An examination of how citizens in Egypt, Jordan, and Palestine use law to resist authoritarianism, revealing that courts can serve as tools of accountability even under repressive regimes.
McEvoy, Mallinder, and Bryson (2022), Lawyers in Conflict and Transition
This book examines how lawyers in post-conflict and authoritarian states navigate repressive legal systems, weighing ethical obligations and risks as they choose to challenge or comply with injustice.
Stuart and Scheingold (2001), Cause Lawyering and the State in a Global Era
This book explores how globalization and democratization are enabling cause lawyers to use transnational networks to challenge the status quo and promote social change through legal advocacy.
Reid (1981), Lawyers and Politics in the Arab World
This book traces how lawyers in the Arab world evolved from anti-colonial leaders to marginalized figures under post-independence military regimes, highlighting the shifting intersection of law, politics, and power.
Oko (2009), “The Lawyer’s Role in a Contemporary Democracy, Promoting the Rule of Law, Lawyers in Fragile Democracies and the Challenges of Democratic Consolidation: The Nigerian Experience”
In fragile democracies, lawyers must help build and secure democratic institutions, a role best understood through context-specific analysis rather than abstract ideals.
Winn and Yeh (1995), “Advocating Democracy: The Role of Lawyers in Taiwan’s Political Transformation”
Despite some lawyers in Taiwan working for social justice, the idea of actively opposing a repressive state is not yet central to the legal profession, though ongoing democratization and legal reforms may enable a more politically engaged role for lawyers in the future.