Autocratic Legalism Kim Lane Scheppele Upd Jun 2026

"...charismatic new leaders are elected by democratic publics and then use their electoral mandates to dismantle by law the constitutional systems they inherited." Key Components:

Autocratic Legalism: Kim Lane Scheppele’s Analysis of Democracy’s Destruction by Law

In the United States, Scheppele's framework has gained increasing attention as concerns about democratic backsliding have intensified. An American Bar Association article from early 2026 directly applied the concept to the U.S. criminal legal system, arguing that probation terms, plea bargaining, and court delays present the appearance of due process while functioning as tools of control—reflecting "the use of law not to limit power, but to entrench it". A 2024 Illinois Law Review article argued that the U.S. Supreme Court itself is engaged in "autocratic legalism," justifying decisions by invoking democratic values even as it consolidates power in an increasingly unaccountable unitary executive. In a June 2025 interview with the French newspaper Libération, Scheppele stated bluntly: "It is clear that Donald Trump has the ambition to create a dictatorship". Her February 2025 Verfassungsblog article, "Trump's Counter-Constitution," opened with the epigraph "He who saves his Country does not violate any Law"—a line that captures how autocratic legalists justify their actions as saving the nation from internal enemies.

In 2025-2026, several regimes have embedded algorithmic governance into legal codes. Hungary’s “Sovereignty Protection Act” (updated 2025) and parts of India’s unified digital personal data law now use automated legal findings to disqualify opposition candidates or NGOs. Scheppele’s warning about “legal forms with authoritarian functions” now includes code as law. autocratic legalism kim lane scheppele upd

In Brazil, scholars have extended Scheppele's framework to analyze the Bolsonaro era. Marina Barreto, in a 2023 article, proposed the concept of "autocratic infra-legalism" to describe how the Bolsonaro administration used administrative legal tools rather than formal constitutional changes to advance its illiberal agenda, offering a counter-argument to Scheppele's original thesis. This academic debate illustrates how Scheppele's framework continues to generate new theoretical developments as scholars apply it to different national contexts.

Institutional targets and vulnerabilities

Once the constitutional framework is secured, autocrats use the legislature to pass a barrage of laws that target opponents and reward allies. A 2024 Illinois Law Review article argued that the U

The framework has also been extended to the so-called (Brazil, India, South Africa) through the Project on Autocratic Legalism (PAL). This initiative, conceptualized by Scheppele, studies how rising autocrats in the Global South use the law to consolidate power—and how the law might be used to resist them.

Autocrats scan the laws of respected democracies, extract their most flawed elements (e.g., severe partisan gerrymandering or political appointment of judges), and assemble them into a toxic domestic framework. If criticized, they accuse international observers of double standards. The Ten-Step Script to Institutional Capture "Autocratic Legalism" by Kim L. Scheppele - Chicago Unbound

Scheppele has pointed to Poland as a rare case where the autocratic slide was reversed, but she is cautious about celebrating. In her 2025 lecture, she observed that "while countries like Poland, Brazil, Ecuador and briefly the United States found some respite from the autocratic slide through elections that restored rule-of-law governments to power, none of the countries that has experienced a serious autocratic episode has been able to fully recover". Legal entrenchment—changing the rules of the game in ways that persist even after the autocratic government leaves office—prevents full restoration. The new Polish government has faced immense difficulty unwinding the judicial changes enacted by PiS, and many of the illiberal structures remain in place. conceptualized by Scheppele

Autocratic legalism is particularly dangerous because it blurs the line between legality and legitimacy. By the time it is obvious that a country is no longer a liberal democracy, the autocrat has already stacked the legal, media, and judicial systems to prevent their removal.

: A common tactic involves "tinkering" with judicial tenure or standardizing appointments to ensure judges align with the executive's wishes. The University of Chicago Law Review Recent and Related Work Autocratic Legalism - The University of Chicago Law Review