Lawyers Between Democracy and Authoritarianism
The Practice
March/April 2025
How do lawyers enable and resist encroaching state power?
March/April 2025
Introducing the March/April 2025 Issue
Highlighting research from around the world on the role of lawyers in countries threatened by authoritarianism.
Why Study Lawyers Amidst Democratic Decline
The Lawyers and Declining Democracy (LADD) project brings together scholars studying the role of lawyers in resisting authoritarianism in countries with backsliding democracies. Project leader Kathryn Hendley, Theodore W. Brazeau Professor of Law and Political Science at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, explains LADD’s goals, offers examples from her particular area of expertise in Russia, and lays out why comparative work is so important.
How Brazilian Lawyers Engage with the State
"Terence Halliday wrote that lawyers can both limit and enable state power, and this is certainly true in Brazil," says Vitor Martins Dias, assistant professor in the Department of Sociology and Criminology at Butler University. In a forthcoming paper around the 2018 corruption investigation Operation Car Wash, Martins Dias explores how lawyers have both enabled and resisted democratic decline in Brazil.
How Chinese Lawyers Engage with the State
Reform-oriented criminal defense lawyers in China act as "agents for change, utilizing the legal system and public discourse as tools to challenge a system that often resists transformation," says Qin (Sky) Ma, Max Weber Fellow at the European University Institute.
How Egyptian Lawyers Engage with the State
What does the weakening of the bar association mean for lawyers under rising autocratization in Egypt? Heba M. Khalil, assistant professor of sociology and criminology at Nebraska Wesleyan University, explains.
How Iranian Lawyers Engage with the State
Resistance lawyers in Iran must use subtle methods to defend their clients, says Atieh Babakhani, assistant professor of law and society at Ramapo College of New Jersey. Relying on qualitative interviews, Babakhani reveals the variety of methods and motivations behind human rights lawyers in Iran.
Why American Lawyers Must Fight Democratic Backsliding
Scholars have documented how autocrats use the law to weaken democratic institutions and exploit emergency powers. If lawyers are going to fight for the rule of law and justice in the United States, they must stand together and speak with "one collective voice," says, Scott L. Cummings, Professor of Legal Ethics at the UCLA School of Law.
