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.
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.
Despite increasing authoritarian control over the judiciary, Turkish activist lawyers such as the Çağdaş Hukukçular Derneği strategically engage with the legal system as a form of grassroots resistance that challenges and redefines state-imposed legal boundaries.
Tunisian lawyers played a key role in the 2011 uprising and its aftermath, using political lawyering to gain symbolic influence and act as watchdogs over the new government.
In Myanmar’s authoritarian legal system, everyday lawyers resist state power by preserving client dignity, offering subtle defiance where rule of law is absent.
This article analyzes how lawyers drove Pakistan’s 2007–2009 judicial movement, but civil society’s framing made its democratic impact possible.
The article explores how Pakistan's judiciary expanded its power under Musharraf, with lawyers and judges resisting regime control through public interest litigation.
This article explores how Pakistan's lawyer-led movement challenged dictatorship and reshaped judicial power and political engagement.
This book explores Trump’s attacks on expertise and truth, highlighting the resistance from professionals defending integrity against his autocratic tactics.
This book examines Trump’s autocratic tactics and the resistance from various sectors that defended liberal democracy.