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.
Europe
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.
Morris (2020), Legal Sabotage: Ernst Fraenkel in Hitler’s Germany
This biography traces Ernst Fraenkel’s legal resistance to the Nazi regime, highlighting his defense of political dissidents and underground activism that shaped his seminal work.
Jakab (2020), “Informal Institutional Elements as Both Preconditions and Consequences of Effective Formal Legal Rules: The Failure of Constitutional Institution Building in Hungary”
An analysis of the role of Hungarian lawyers who are blind and to a certain extent, also defenseless against recent authoritarian tendencies.
Titaev and Shkliaruk (2016), “Investigators in Russia: Who Creates Practice in the Investigation of Criminal Cases”
Analyzes the role of investigators in the Russian criminal justice process.
Solomon, Jr. (1987), “The Case of the Vanishing Acquittal: Informal Norms and the Practice of Soviet Criminal Justice”
Explains the institutional reasons behind the decrease in acquittals following the death of Stalin due to the fears of judges and prosecutors of being held accountable for bringing unsustainable cases.
Newcity (2005), “Why Is There No Russian Atticus Finch? Or Even a Russian Rumpole”
An exploration of the differences in the societal expectations of lawyers in the United States and Russia, concluding that the sort of respect afforded to Atticus Finch is notably absent in Russia.
Khozhdaeva and Rabovski (2016), “Strategies and Tactics of Criminal Defenders in Russia in the Context of Accusatorial Bias”
Analysis of the institutional weakness of criminal defense lawyers in Russia due to the informal coalition between judges and prosecutors.