This study investigates the professional challenges faced by lawyers in authoritarian regimes.
Europe
Meiertöns (2014), “An International Lawyer in Democracy and Dictatorship–Re-Introducing Herbert Kraus”
This article illustrates the dilemma lawyers face in authoritarian regimes—balancing resistance and survival—and highlights their potential role in both confronting and later rebuilding the rule of law.
Israël (2005), “From Cause Lawyering to Resistance: French Communist Lawyers in the Shadow of History (1929-1945)”
This chapter explores how the AJI engaged in international campaigns against fascism and repression, using legal analysis, public advocacy, and symbolic trials to advance their cause.
Provost (2015), “Teetering on the Edge of Legal Nihilism: Russia and the Evolving European Human Rights Regime”
This article examines the fragile state of the rule of law in Russia, highlighting its complicated relationship with the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) since Russia ratified the European Convention in 1998.
Graczyk (2024), “Postwar Convictions of Nazi Judges and Prosecutors for Their Activities in the Occupied Polish Territories (1939-1945)”
This article provides a synthetic overview of prior research into the postwar criminal convictions of lawyers, specifically judges and prosecutors, who operated in Nazi-occupied Polish territories.
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.
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.
Kazun and Yakovlev (2019), “Legal Mobilization in Russia: How Organizations of Lawyers Can Support Social Changes”
The article argues that in Russia, collective action by criminal defense lawyers can drive social change during periods of crisis, but its effectiveness depends on the institutional strength of legal organizations and the stance of their professional elites.
Kapinga (1992), “The Legal Profession and Social Action in the Third World: Reflections on Tanzania and Kenya”
The legal professions in Tanzania and Kenya, despite operating under repressive state control, have played a crucial activist role in challenging authoritarianism—unlike their more individualistic counterparts in the West.
Parslow (2018), “Lawyers against the Law: The Challenge of Turkish Lawyering Associations
Despite increasing authoritarian control over the judiciary, Turkish activist lawyers such as the Çağdaş Hukukçular Derneği strategically engage with the legal system as a form of grassroots resistance that challenges and redefines state-imposed legal boundaries.