In January 2025, a group of researchers who would later become part of LADD gathered at the Indiana University Maurer School of Law in Bloomington for Lawyers as Agents for Change in Countries Facing Distress, a two-day symposium co-sponsored by LADD and hosted by the Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies. The event was organized …
In March and April 2025, the Trump Administration issued a series ofexecutive orders directed at various law firms that had represented clients orundertaken actions with which the President disagreed. Those executive ordersimposed various sanctions capable of destroying the firms financially. TheAdministration also threatened numerous other law firms with similar types ofexecutive orders.Although a few law …
Rogelio Perez Perdomo. “Lawyers and Political Liberalism in Venezuela.” In Fighting for Political Freedom: Comparative Studies of the Legal Complex and Political Liberalism. Edited by Terence C. Halliday, Lucien Karpik, and Malcolm M. Feeley, pp. 345-360, Oxford, U.K: Hart Publishing, 2007. This chapter analyzes the prosecution of three prominent Venezuelan jurists, Cecilia Sosa, Allan Brewer-Carías, …
Daniel M. Brinks. “The Legal Complex and the Response to Police Violence in South America.” In Fighting for Political Freedom: Comparative Studies of the Legal Complex and Political Liberalism. Edited by Terence C. Halliday, Lucien Karpik, and Malcolm M. Feeley, pp. 281-314, Oxford, U.K: Hart Publishing, 2007. This chapter examines how lawyers, prosecutors, and judges …
Tamir Moustafa. “Mobilising the Law in an Authoritarian State: The Legal Complex in Contemporary Egypt.” In Fighting for Political Freedom: Comparative Studies of the Legal Complex and Political Liberalism. Edited by Terence C. Halliday, Lucien Karpik, and Malcolm M. Feeley, pp. 193-218, Oxford, U.K: Hart Publishing, 2007. This chapter examines the Egyptian legal profession as …
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 …
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 …