In backsliding democracies facing such state behavior—whether through repression, abuse of power, or militarized actions—attorneys play a critical role as defenders of legal order and democratic accountability.
Evidence of Lawyers’ Resistance
Kazun and Yakovlev (2024), “Who Demands Collective Action in an Imperfect Institutional Environment? A Case Study of the Profession of Advocates in Russia”
This article examines how ethically driven Russian criminal defense lawyers, motivated by professional values and exposure to rights violations, could form a collective force to strengthen professional associations, push for legal reform, and hold law enforcement accountable within a deteriorating democratic system.
Khalil (2023), “‘We Belong to the Streets’: Lawyers and Social Movements in Post-Revolution Egypt”
This chapter argues that in authoritarian and transitional contexts like Egypt, the evolving precarity of the legal profession transforms cause lawyers into adaptive, embedded actors who blend legal advocacy with grassroots activism to resist repression and support social movements.
Ignacio Fradejas-García and Kristín Loftsdóttir (2024), “Mobility Cause Lawyering: Contesting Regimes of (im)mobility in the Canary Islands Migration Route to Europe”
This article examines how cause lawyers and allied actors collectively resist restrictive EU migration policies during the Canary Islands crisis by strategically using legal and human rights tools to challenge exclusionary practices.
Crooke (2024), “Frustration and Fidelity: How Public Interest Lawyers Navigate Procedure in the Direct Representation of Asylum Seekers”
This study reveals how public interest lawyers strive to empower asylum seekers in Los Angeles despite facing significant challenges from a restrictive and politicized U.S. immigration system.
Abbas (2021), “Lawyers’ Movement For The Renaissance Of The Independent Judiciary In Pakistan”
The article highlights how Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry’s challenge to military dominance in Pakistan sparked a nationwide lawyers’ movement that ultimately restored judicial independence and reshaped the country’s constitutional landscape.
Myint (2014), Legal Hybridity: Rule of Law Under Authoritarianism
The article explains how authoritarian regimes like Singapore exhibit legal hybridity by using law both to strengthen control and to limit their own power, blending elements of rule of law and rule by law.
Park (2022), “First Amendment and the Rule of Law: Lawyers and Their Duty to Democracy”
The article explores the legal and ethical consequences for lawyers defending disputed election claims, proposing a new framework to balance First Amendment rights with professional responsibilities.
Aral (2024), “International Lawyers as Hope Mongers: How Did We Come to Believe That Democracy Was Here to Stay?”
The article argues that current fears of democratic decline arise from unrealistic expectations rooted in Cold War-era progress narratives that presumed inevitable democratic consolidation.
McEvoy (2019), “Cause Lawyers, Political Violence, and Professionalism in Conflict”
The article examines how cause lawyers in authoritarian and conflict-affected societies balance legal professionalism with political commitment, using interviews and the concept of “legitimation work” to reveal evolving roles shaped by violence and transition.