This article examines the role of lawyers in resisting democratic backsliding and authoritarian policymaking in the United States, particularly during the Trump administration.
North America
Lahav (2010), “Portraits of Resistance: Lawyer Responses to Unjust Proceedings”
This article explores the underexamined role of lawyers operating within manifestly unjust procedural regimes, particularly in the context of liberal democracies under internal stress.
Wendel (2010), Lawyers and Fidelity to Law
This book reimagines legal ethics as a commitment to the law’s role in resolving deep societal conflicts and maintaining political stability, rather than as a license for lawyers to bend legal rules in service of client interests.
Mortazavi (2017), “The Cost of Avoidance: Pluralism, Neutrality, and the Foundations of Modern Legal Ethics”
The article argues that the legal profession’s shift to “neutral partisanship” in 1969 undermines lawyers’ ability to uphold justice and democracy by suppressing moral and ethical engagement.
Varga (2013), “Legal Mentality as a Component of Law. Rationality Driven Into Anarchy in America”
This article critiques the mythologized self-image of lawyers as neutral experts, arguing that in the absence of broader societal consensus, their function becomes both overextended and ideologically fraught, raising urgent questions about the legitimacy and limits of legal authority in postmodern, fragmented democratic societies.
Moran (2019), “The Three Ages of Modern American Lawyering and the Current Crisis in the Legal Profession and Legal Education”
The article calls for renewed attention to the civic and justice-oriented dimensions of legal training and leadership.
Ashar (2016), “Deep Critique and Democratic Lawyering in Clinical Practice”
This article critiques mainstream legal education reform discourse for neglecting social justice values and embracing neoliberal frameworks.
Cheh (2005), “Should Lawyers Participate in Rigged Systems: The Case of the Military Commissions”
This article examines whether lawyers should participate in legal proceedings that offer only the illusion of justice, potentially legitimizing a flawed system, or instead refuse involvement to preserve professional integrity.
Farbman (2019), “Resistance Lawyering”
The article invites contemporary lawyers to learn from this integration of daily legal work and political struggle as a model for resistance within unjust systems.
Godsoe, Smith, Yaroshefsky (2022), “Can You Be a Legal Ethics Scholar and Have Guts?”
The article also offers a framework for action, including filing disciplinary complaints and embracing a more publicly engaged model of legal ethics scholarship.