Lawyering Without Law
We often frame authoritarianism as lawless, marked by constitutional rupture or institutional breakdown. But some of the most effective assaults on democracy have operated through law itself.
Around the world, leaders like Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in Turkey and the former prime minister of Hungary, Viktor Orbán, have used legal systems, rules of law, and institutional practices to consolidate power, restrict dissent, and hollow out democratic accountability from within. That pattern is becoming more visible in the United States, where mounting political pressure on courts, lawyers, and legal institutions is raising urgent questions about the role of the legal profession in moments of democratic crisis.
“Lawyering Without Law,” a bi-weekly podcast from the Knight Institute, interrogates the unique and important role that lawyers play in defending democracy, or in facilitating the slide into authoritarianism. Hosted by Knight Institute Senior Fellow and Columbia Law Professor Madhav Khosla and the Knight Institute’s Research Director Katy Glenn Bass, the series brings together scholars, litigators, and practitioners to explore these dynamics across historical and contemporary contexts. Drawing on global examples of democratic backsliding, each episode connects these developments to the United States and outlines what is at stake for the legal profession and for democracy itself.
Read more about Khosla’s research project with the Knight Institute examining the crucial role that lawyers can play in preserving democratic freedoms and institutions here.
“Lawyering Without Law” is available on Apple, Spotify, and wherever you get podcasts. Listen, subscribe, and leave a review. We'd love to know what you think.
Lawyering Without Law
Latest Episodes
From Torture to Trump: How the Expansion of Executive Power after 9/11 Eroded Accountability and the Rule of Law
The Bush administration’s use of torture after 9/11 was aided by government lawyers who provided contorted legal justifications for its use against detainees. In this episode, Alberto Mora, who served as General Counsel of the Navy during the G...
When Lawyers Stop Following the Rules: How Politics Became Law
What happens when lawyers stop believing that law and politics are different things? Constitutional law scholar Deborah Pearlstein joins host Katy Glenn Bass to discuss legal ethics, the rule of law, and how decades of erosion of norms within t...
Principle vs. Profit: How Institutions Lose Their Way
Bribery is the corruption we prosecute. But according to Lawrence Lessig, it's institutional corruption that poses the most danger to American democracy. Hosts Katy Glenn Bass and Madhav Khosla speak with the Harvard Law professor who makes a p...
What Does Legal Authoritarianism Look Like?
What does authoritarianism look like when it operates through law? In the first episode of “Lawyer Without Law,” hosts Katy Glenn Bass and Madhav Khosla speak with Princeton University Professor Kim Lane Scheppele. They explore historic example...
"Lawyering Without Law," a New Podcast from the Knight First Amendment Institute
What happens when law becomes a tool of democratic decline?Authoritarianism is often framed as lawless. But many of the most effective assaults on democracy operate through law itself.“Lawyering Without Law” is a biweekly podcast ...
