Kjersti Lohne. “Rescaling the Legal Complex: Lawyers and the Resilience of the Liberal International Order.” Law & Social Inquiry, vol. 50, no. 2 (2025): 598-617. This review article revisits “legal complex” literature to assess whether lawyers and related legal occupations can be relied upon to defend political liberalism during periods of democratic crisis. Drawing on …
Rogelio Pérez Perdomo. “The Venezuelan Legal Profession: Lawyers in an Inegalitarian Society.” In Lawyers in Society: An Overview, edited by Richard L. Abel and Philip S.C. Lewis, pp. 201-220. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1996. This chapter provides historical and socio-political context for understanding Venezuela’s legal and institutional development. It traces Venezuela’s trajectory from Spanish …
Pamela A. Jordan, Defending Rights in Russia: Lawyers, the State and Legal Reform in the Post-Soviet Era. Vancouver: UBC Press, 2005. This study examines the transformation of the Russian bar (advokatura) after the collapse of the Soviet Union, focusing on how practicing lawyers and advocates redefined their professional identity and institutional role during democratic transition. …
Qin Ma. “Who are the Chinese Sǐkē (Diehard) Lawyers?—A Belated Clarification.” China Law and Society Review, vol. 10, no. 1 (2025): 1-50. This article explores the emergence and evolution of Sǐkē lawyers, a distinctive group of Chinese criminal defense lawyers who rose to prominence around 2009. Known for their zealous advocacy, emphasis on procedural rights, …
Rahat Imran and Imran Munir. “Defying Marginalization: Emergence of Women’s Organizations and the Resistance Movement in Pakistan: A Historical Overview.” Journal of International Women’s Studies, vol. 19, no. 6 (2018): 132-156. This article examines the rise of feminist legal and political resistance in Pakistan during and after General Zia-ul-Haq’s regime (1977–1988), a period marked by …
Yves Dezalay and Bryant G. Garth. “State Politics and Legal Markets.” Comparative Sociology, vol. 10, no. 1 (2011): 38-66. This article critiques dominant literature on the legal profession for overlooking deeper structural and sociological questions, particularly those concerning the role of elite lawyers in shaping state and economic power. Rather than focusing narrowly on the …
Rachel López. “Critical Curriculum Design: Teaching Law in an Age of Rising Authoritarianism.” Minnesota Law Review, vol. 109, no. 2 (2025): 81-111. This article examines how legal education in the United States contributes to democratic backsliding by producing lawyers who are technically proficient but often disengaged from democratic values. It argues that the traditional model …
Noha Aboueldahab. “Transitional Justice as Repression and Resistance: Practices in the Arab World.” Journal of International Criminal Justice, vol. 21, no. 4 (2023): 701-717. This article analyzes how transitional justice in the Arab World operates as both a mechanism of state repression and a form of legal resistance, particularly in the wake of the Arab …
Eva Pils. “From Independent Lawyer Groups to Civic Opposition: The Case of China’s New Citizen Movement.” Asian-Pacific Law & Policy Journal, vol. 19, no. 1 (2017): 110-152. This article explores how lawyers in authoritarian and backsliding regimes, specifically China, shift from legal professionals to civic activists in response to systemic institutional dysfunction. The article centers …
Steve Bachmann. “Lawyers, Law and Social Change.” N.Y.U. Review of Law & Social Change, vol. 13, no. 1 (1984): 1-50. This article explores the complex relationship between lawyers, law, and social change, raising a central question for both legal professionals and activists: can law serve as a meaningful tool in the pursuit of justice? The …