Autocratic Legalism Kim Lane Scheppele Upd ((free))

April 12, 2026

The warning of autocratic legalism is that the death of democracy often comes not with a bang, but with a statute. The most dangerous threat to a legal system is not lawlessness, but a legal system that has been engineered to serve power rather than constrain it. autocratic legalism kim lane scheppele upd

Scheppele argues that autocrats follow a specific "script" to hollow out liberal democracies from within while maintaining an outward appearance of legality: April 12, 2026 The warning of autocratic legalism

No update is complete without acknowledging critiques. Some scholars (e.g., Tom Ginsburg, Aziz Huq) argue that autocratic legalism risks over-extension—calling every political conflict over courts a sign of authoritarianism. Others note that Scheppele’s model struggles with (e.g., Belarus or Russia’s post-2022 crackdowns, where torture and disappearances supplement legal tactics). Some scholars (e