The article examines how Pakistan’s grassroots lawyers’ movement leveraged nonviolent resistance and mass mobilization to restore judicial independence, highlighting civil society’s potential to drive democratic change under authoritarian rule.
Middle East
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.
Khan (2023), “The Lawyers’ Movement in Pakistan: How Legal Actors Mobilise in a Hybrid Regime”
The article argues that in Pakistan’s hybrid regime, lawyer-leaders and political parties, rather than courts alone, played a crucial role in judicial restoration, challenging traditional legal mobilization theories based on political liberalism.
Munir (2009), “Struggling for the Rule of Law: The Pakistani Lawyers’ Movement”
The 2007 Lawyers’ Movement in Pakistan marked a pivotal push for rule of law and democratic reform, as lawyers mobilized against authoritarian overreach and succeeded in restoring judicial independence.
Shafqat (2019), “Civil Society and the Lawyers’ Movement of Pakistan”
This article analyzes how lawyers drove Pakistan’s 2007–2009 judicial movement, but civil society’s framing made its democratic impact possible.
Ghias (2010), “Miscarriage of Chief Justice: Judicial Power and the Legal Complex in Pakistan under Musharraf”
The article explores how Pakistan’s judiciary expanded its power under Musharraf, with lawyers and judges resisting regime control through public interest litigation.
Berkman (2010), “The Pakistani Lawyers’ Movement and the Popular Currency of Judicial Power”
This article explores how Pakistan’s lawyer-led movement challenged dictatorship and reshaped judicial power and political engagement.
Schaaf (2021), Litigating the Authoritarian State: Lawful Resistance and Judicial Politics in the Middle East
An examination of how citizens in Egypt, Jordan, and Palestine use law to resist authoritarianism, revealing that courts can serve as tools of accountability even under repressive regimes.
Reid (1981), Lawyers and Politics in the Arab World
This book traces how lawyers in the Arab world evolved from anti-colonial leaders to marginalized figures under post-independence military regimes, highlighting the shifting intersection of law, politics, and power.
Dixon and Isaacharoff (2016), “Living to Fight Another Day: Judicial Deferral in Defense of Democracy”
Lawyers play a crucial role in upholding judicial independence, as shown in Pakistan’s 2007 movement, where their collective action helped restore a removed chief justice and reinforced the judiciary’s power against executive overreach.