Autocratic Legalism Kim Lane Scheppele Upd (99% CERTIFIED)

These debates do not undermine Scheppele's core insight; they enrich it. The proliferation of related concepts—autocratic legalism, weaponized legalism, illiberal constitutionalism, autocratic infra-legalism—suggests a robust and evolving scholarly conversation about how law can be used for anti-democratic ends.

The first step is rarely a crackdown on citizens; it is a crackdown on the courts. By expanding the size of supreme courts ("court-packing") or lowering the retirement age for judges, leaders can fill judicial seats with loyalists. When the government later passes unconstitutional laws, there is no independent body left to strike them down. 2. Eliminating Checks and Balances

Leaders win power through relatively fair elections, then claim a popular mandate to make sweeping changes that eventually eliminate the possibility of a peaceful rotation of power. autocratic legalism kim lane scheppele upd

Ensuring that courts, central banks, and election commissions remain outside the absolute control of the executive.

🚀 Leaders expand the powers of the executive branch while weakening the legislature and the judiciary. This often involves "reforming" the civil service to replace neutral experts with party loyalists. These debates do not undermine Scheppele's core insight;

Scheppele’s extensive comparative constitutional research highlights several nations that have actively served as laboratories for autocratic legalism: Autocratic Legalism - The University of Chicago Law Review

This involves using legal maneuvers that might be "technically" legal—such as changing court sizes or redrawing electoral districts—but are clearly intended to permanently disadvantage political rivals. By expanding the size of supreme courts ("court-packing")

For readers encountering the search term “autocratic legalism kim lane scheppele upd” (likely a typographical shorthand for “UPenn” or “UPenn Law”), it is worth untangling the institutional threads.

Existing rules are reinterpreted to suit the leader's goals, often through loyalists placed in administrative or judicial roles. Global Manifestations

But autocratic legalism is not a Central European pathology. In a widely circulated 2020 essay, The End of the Trump Era and the Future of Autocratic Legalism , Scheppele turned her lens to the United States. She argued that while Donald Trump was a clumsy autocrat—more impulse than strategy—his administration had nevertheless deployed autocratic legalist tactics: a travel ban justified by statutory authority, the separation of migrant families under a literal reading of a 1997 consent decree, the rewriting of postal service rules before an election, and the relentless pressure on the Department of Justice to act as a personal law firm.

Autocratic legalism thrives by exploiting the distinction between "rule by law" and "the rule of law".