This article critiques the ethical assumptions underlying liberal legal professionals’ engagement with authoritarian regimes, particularly through the lens of modernization theory, which once promised that economic development would naturally lead to democratization.
Tom Ginsburg and Tamir Moustafa. “Introduction: The Functions of Courts in Authoritarian Politics,” Introduction. In Rule by Law: The Politics of Courts in Authoritarian Regimes. Edited by Tom Ginsburg and Tamir Moustafa, 1–22. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008. Summary: Political developments in the late twentieth century dramatically increased the importance of courts and judges for …
This article analyzes how cause lawyering emerged and thrived in Hong Kong under authoritarian conditions.
This article examines the pivotal role of Hong Kong lawyers in the pro-democracy movement.
This article critically examines American assumptions about the development of the legal profession in China.
This article explores the dynamics of legal mobilization under authoritarian regimes, using post-colonial Hong Kong as a case study.
This article explores the political positioning of lawyers in Hong Kong, challenging conventional theories in the sociology of professions that focus on status and market control.
This article explores the development and significance of these parallel legal personnel systems in China’s legal modernization.
This article argues that moments of political upheaval shape the legal profession’s collective identity, showing how divergent experiences under authoritarianism in Taiwan led judges, lawyers, and prosecutors to develop distinct normative commitments based on their roles in resisting or navigating state power during democratization.
This article explores how the Hong Kong state counters cause lawyering by promoting “state-embedded lawyers” who defend regime stability, resulting in a polarized legal profession that mirrors broader societal divisions and reshapes public perceptions of the rule of law under mainland China’s influence.