Cause lawyering is a distinct form of legal practice shaped by the social and political context, particularly the dynamics between lawyers and their clients, which influences both its methods and the identities it produces.
Global Comparison
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.
Pavone (2024), “Lawyering in Hard Places: Comparative Dispatches from the Margins of Legality”
The article argues that in authoritarian and transitional contexts, cause lawyers often defy traditional roles by challenging state-aligned bar associations, supporting contentious movements, and using unconventional tactics to confront judicial and political oppression.
McEvoy, Mallinder, and Bryson (2022), Lawyers in Conflict and Transition
This book examines how lawyers in post-conflict and authoritarian states navigate repressive legal systems, weighing ethical obligations and risks as they choose to challenge or comply with injustice.
Stuart and Scheingold (2001), Cause Lawyering and the State in a Global Era
This book explores how globalization and democratization are enabling cause lawyers to use transnational networks to challenge the status quo and promote social change through legal advocacy.
Scheppele (2018), “Autocratic Legalism”
In backsliding democracies where autocrats manipulate legal systems to entrench power, attorneys play a crucial dual role as defenders of constitutionalism and civic educators, documenting abuses, challenging authoritarian legal reforms, and empowering the public to recognize and resist the legalistic tools of autocracy.
Savelsberg (2000), “Contradictions, Law, and State Socialism”
An examination of the relationship of law to antagonisms and contradictions within state socialism, explored from a Weberian and a Marxian perspective.
Chua (2019), “Legal Mobilization and Authoritarianism”
An examination of legal power in the lens that authoritarianism is all over.
Goldstein (2022), “The Attorney’s Duty to Democracy: Legal Ethics, Attorney Discipline, and the 2020 Election”
An analysis of the roles that attorneys have played in facilitating democratic backsliding internationally to draw lessons for the American legal ethics regime.