This chapter explores the critical role attorneys play as defenders of the rule of law in backsliding democracies, using Hong Kong as a case study.
Evidence of Lawyers’ Resistance
Wang (2025), “The Legality Trap: Legal Cooptation Under Authoritarianism”
This study explores how legal advocacy in authoritarian China shapes environmental social movements by channeling their efforts into less radical, more state-aligned paths.
Moustafa (2007), “The Politics of Domination: Law and Resistance in Authoritarian States”
This article argues that entrenched authoritarian regimes strengthen judicial institutions to consolidate power by attracting investment, enforcing bureaucratic discipline, maintaining elite coalitions, and legitimizing controversial reforms.
Pangaribuan (2024), “Navigating an Authoritarian Landscape: Criminal procedure and Defence Lawyers in Indonesia”
This article examines the challenges faced by defense lawyers operating within Indonesia’s authoritarian legal system.
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.
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.
McEvoy and Bryson (2022), “Boycott, Resistance and the Law: Cause Lawyering in Conflict and Authoritarianism”
This article explores how cause lawyers operate in authoritarian or conflicted settings where legal outcomes are often predetermined and victories are rare.
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.
McCarthy and Mustafina (2024), “A Measure of Justice: Citizen Legal Advocates, Lay Lawyering, and Access to Justice in Russia”
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.
Mustafina (2022), “Turning on the Lights? Publicity and Defensive Legal Mobilization in Protest‐Related Trials in Russia”
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.