2019
The initial conversation
Scholars gathered around Kim Lane Scheppele’s call to examine how law had become central to contemporary democratic erosion.
The Project
About
The Project on Autocratic Legalism is an international research initiative examining how constitutional democracies are transformed through law.
PAL brings together scholars from around the world—particularly the Global South—to understand how legal institutions, ideas, professionals, and practices can facilitate or resist autocratization.
Its collaborative, interdisciplinary, and comparative work connects academic communities, regions, and generations of researchers.
Our Story
From a shared question to a global network
2020
PAL-BISA
The Brazil, India, and South Africa collaboration combined country studies and comparative research, establishing PAL’s intellectual foundations.
2021–Today
A broader community
The GCP laboratory expanded PAL through new collaborations, PALcast, publications, workshops, mentoring, and public engagement.
What We Do
Research as collaboration
Research networks
Comparative and interdisciplinary inquiry across regions, institutions, and legal traditions.
Convening
Workshops, conferences, research laboratories, and collaborative working groups.
Knowledge
Books, journal articles, edited collections, and policy-oriented publications.
Exchange
PALcast, mentoring, capacity building, and dialogue between scholarship and public debate.
Our Commitments
PAL seeks to deepen understanding of the legal foundations of democracy and authoritarianism while expanding who participates in producing that knowledge.
People
PAL is shaped by scholars across law and the social sciences. Meet the contributors →
Contact
For general enquiries, write to contact@autocratic-legalism.net.