Autocratic Legalism Kim Lane - Scheppele Upd

Example E — United States (debated elements: constitutional hardball)

Expanding the size of supreme courts to pack them with partisan loyalists.

Kim Lane Scheppele autocratic legalism as the process where democratically elected leaders use their electoral mandates to systematically dismantle the constitutional system through legal and constitutional means. Unlike 20th-century autocrats who relied on military coups, modern "legalistic autocrats" weaponize the law to consolidate power, hollowing out liberal democratic values while maintaining a "veneer of legality". Paper Outline: Autocratic Legalism I. Introduction Definition autocratic legalism kim lane scheppele upd

The keyword’s durability lies in its uncomfortable truth: Law is not automatically the friend of liberty. Law can be a weapon. Procedures can be parasites on principles. And the most dangerous enemies of democracy are not those who burn the courthouse, but those who quietly rewrite the rules of admission.

Scheppele’s close reading of the Hungarian case, published in Constitutional Democracy and the Rule of Law (2015), broke new ground. She showed that autocratic legalism proceeds in : Paper Outline: Autocratic Legalism I

Kim Lane Scheppele, “Autocratic Legalism” (2018) and her 2026 EUI working paper, “The New Legal Arsenal of Illiberalism.”

In this address, titled "Democracy in Danger: The Global Challenge of Autocratic Legalism," Scheppele took the audience through the "autocratic legalistic playbook" and argued that we need a new approach to thinking about the rule of law, one that prioritizes the restoration of democracy rather than blind adherence to legality. Procedures can be parasites on principles

The Evolution of Autocratic Legalism: Scheppele’s Framework in the 2026 Landscape

Kim Lane Scheppele 's foundational text on Autocratic Legalism was published in the University of Chicago Law Review The University of Chicago Law Review Core Thesis of the Text Scheppele defines autocratic legalism