Paper short abstract:

Research on legal authoritarianism has focused on states like Russia, China, Hungary and Poland. But most authoritarian states are comparatively less globally powerful and have limited capacity. This article studies how such states use law to offer an initial typology of legal authoritarianism.

Paper long abstract:

Many of today’s authoritarians pursue illiberal ends using rule of law compliant means. Much of the research on how authoritarians use law has been based on comparatively highly capacitated authoritarian states, including Russia, China, Hungary and Poland. These states seek to extend their control and enact illiberal political agendas, both domestically—for instance using law to narrow the space for political opposition and bolster the advantage of incumbency, and internationally—for instance by strengthening sovereign claims and undermining human rights norms. With a regional focus on sub-Saharan Africa, and especially Uganda, this article examines how authoritarians use law in lower-capacity states to make an empirical and analytic contribution to this emerging scholarship. Lower-capacity states may lack the ability to pursue authoritarian interests directly, instead adopting strategies that indirectly weaken the rule of law. For instance, in addition to subverting law, some authoritarians destabilize jurisdictional claims, thereby making it uncertain when a given institution will be the relevant legal authority. Additionally, the line between domestic and international politics may be particularly blurred, as domestic political economies rely heavily on foreign markets on one hand; and a state’s sovereignty may also rely on security guarantees from foreign allies. This may complicate legal authoritarian tactics used by more highly-capacitated states. By identifying several ways that lower-capacity authoritarian states strategically use law, this article offers an initial approach to typologizing varieties of legal authoritarianism, with important implications for understanding how these states engage the international order.