PAL at LSA 2025: Understanding Autocratic Legalism and Resistance through Law

As democratic backsliding becomes a global concern, the Project on Autocratic Legalism (PAL) continues to offer critical insights into how law is deployed—both to erode and to defend democracy. At the 2025 Law & Society Association (LSA) Annual Meeting, taking place in Chicago from May 22 to 25, PAL will host a series of panels showcasing cutting-edge research on the intersections of law, authoritarianism, and resistance.

Since its launch in 2019 in response to then-LSA President Kim Lane Scheppele’s call to examine how rising autocrats use law to consolidate power, PAL has grown into a vibrant international research collaborative. With contributors from across the Global South and North, PAL now spans diverse contexts—from Brazil to India, Turkey to Hungary, the United States, and beyond.

A Rich Program Across Four Panels

This year’s program features three paper sessions and one Author-Meets-Readers session, each tackling different dimensions of autocratic legalism:

🔹 Autocratic Legalism I (Friday, May 23, 8:00–9:45 AM)

Chaired by Raquel Pimenta (FGV Law School, São Paulo), this session examines judicial complicity in democratic decline, the use of political trials to reshape national identity in Turkey, and secrecy as a governance tool in Bolsonaro’s Brazil.

🔹 Defending American Democracy against Trumpist Autocracy (Friday, May 23, 12:45–2:30 PM)

Building on Richard Abel’s new trilogy on Trump and authoritarianism in the U.S., this Author-Meets-Readers session features discussion with scholars including Kim Scheppele, Fabio de Sa e Silva, and Jothie Rajah, focusing on resistance strategies against autocratic populism.

🔹 Autocratic Legalism II (Friday, May 23, 2:45–4:30 PM)

This panel, chaired by Mohsin Bhat (Queen Mary University of London), looks at how autocratic legalism affects universities, protest arenas, and public security—highlighting continuities between democratic and autocratic regimes, and the transnational nature of legal resistance.

🔹 Autocratic Legalism III (Saturday, May 24, 8:00–9:45 AM)

Chaired by Fabio de Sa e Silva (University of Oklahoma), this final session analyzes judicial responses to free speech during democratic crises, the dismantling of the rule of law in Venezuela, and how Egypt’s judiciary has been shaped by social exclusion and authoritarianism.

📄 Download the Full Brochure

For a complete overview of all PAL panels, presenters, and paper abstracts, download the full brochure:

PAL 2025.pdf

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