This article critically examines the ethical and political assumptions that have shaped how liberal legal professionals, particularly in the United States, engage with authoritarian regimes.
In backsliding democracies, this research shows that lawyers remain key actors in the struggle for political change.
This article introduces a collection of studies that explore the surprising rise of protest and public dissent in contemporary China, despite its authoritarian and repressive political system.
This article explores how cause lawyers operate in authoritarian or conflicted settings where legal outcomes are often predetermined and victories are rare.
This article reviews two recent books that examine the evolving role of law and legal activism under authoritarian rule in China and Hong Kong.
This article challenges the common view that Chinese lawyers are either dissident activists or politically disengaged professionals by focusing on a third category: lawyers who work closely with the state while still engaging in governance.
This article examines how the Chinese state manages and shapes the legal profession in ways that support authoritarian rule, using mechanisms of professional socialization rather than relying solely on repression.
This article explores how access to justice can be expanded in an authoritarian setting like Russia through the use of citizen legal advocates (CLAs)—ordinary citizens without formal legal education who represent defendants in criminal and administrative cases.
This article examines how defense lawyers in contemporary Russia strategically use publicity in trials involving protesters, despite the broader context of a politicized and often predetermined legal system.
Ann Southworth. “Lawyers and the Conservative Counterrevolution.” Law & Social Inquiry, vol. 43, no. 4 (2018): 1698–1728. This article analyzes how the conservative legal movement in the United States has successfully mobilized lawyers, organizations, and financial backers to reshape the legal and political landscape, contributing to a broader democratic backsliding. It highlights how conservative and …