University of Wisconsin–Madison

Category: Politics Within the Legal Profession

Lai (2025), Legal Resistance Under Authoritarianism: The Struggle for the Rule of Law in Hong Kong

This book examines the erosion of Hong Kong’s rule of law amid growing authoritarian control by China.

Collins (2022), “Legitimation Narratives, Resistance, and Legal Cultures in Authoritarian and Post-authoritarian Chile: Lawyers and Judges in the (Post)-Transition”

This chapter explores the role of law, lawyers, and legal activism in authoritarian and transitional contexts, using Chile’s experience as a case study.

Kroncke (2025), “Legal Complicity in an Age of Resurgent Authoritarianism”

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.

Givens (2011), “Advocates Of Change In Authoritarian Regimes: How Chinese Lawyers And Chinese And Russian Journalists Stay Out Of Trouble”

In backsliding democracies, this research shows that lawyers remain key actors in the struggle for political change.

Xie (2022), “‘Lawyering Repression’ and Protest Demobilization Under Rule of Law Authoritarianism”

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.

Lee (2014), “Law as a Contested Terrain Under Authoritarianism”

This article reviews two recent books that examine the evolving role of law and legal activism under authoritarian rule in China and Hong Kong.

Stern and Liu (2021), “State-Adjacent Professionals: How Chinese Lawyers Participate in Political Life”

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.

Stern and Liu (2020), “The Good Lawyer: State-Led Professional Socialization in Contemporary China”

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.

Southworth (2018), “Lawyers and the Conservative Counterrevolution”

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 …

Southworth (2019), Lawyers of the Right Professionalizing the Conservative Coalition.

This article examines how conservative lawyers have strategically shaped the legal profession and political landscape in the United States, contributing to democratic backsliding by promoting ideologies that concentrate legal power within partisan movements.