Decolonial Sociology of Law Seminar Series: "The making of a pariah class: activist lawyers’ experiences of post-imperial chauvinism"

Note: The seminar starts at 14:00

• Attend the seminar online via Zoom

The last 50 years can be characterised in terms of the expansion and subsequent contraction of democratic citizenship. Law has been central to this process. The first three decades following WW2 witnessed the establishment of social citizenship and the emergence of a community of activist lawyers who played a key role in the expansion of socio-economic and human rights. The following half-century has seen the incremental unpicking of these rights and the related transformation of this community into a pariah group. The focus of this paper is on the context of this transformation, and the means by which it was effected.

My discussion will reflect on the changing nature of the relationship between citizenship, activist lawyering and the Rule of law, and the forces that produced these changes. TH Marshall’s argument that without universal socio-economic rights, certain groups would not only be excluded from full citizenship but would also be stigmatised has been vindicated: a portfolio of policies - both material and symbolic- have dismantled democratic norms and partitioned citizenship. Fuelled by right-wing media and facilitated by changes in the social media landscape and the digital ecosystem, these policies have drawn upon archaic discourses of deservingness and, increasingly, exclusivist ethno-nationalism, racism and patriotism to de-humanise certain groups, and attack the justice system generally and activist lawyers in particular. The resulting deterioration in the public standing and legitimacy of these lawyers means that they now operate under conditions of extreme vulnerability. Of course, this trajectory from democratic citizenship to various forms of ethno-nationalist authoritarianism, and the centrality of law to the process, is replicated in many other countries. In the UK however, it is deeply inflected by the ideological legacy of empire: the significance of ‘post-imperial nostalgia’ (Gilroy 2004) and of military mobilisation in national consciousness is reflected in populist attacks which counterpose elites to ‘true’ Britons (coded as white), and which construct lefty lawyers as an unpatriotic ‘pariah group’. The discussion will draw on data that illustrates the centrality of activist lawyers to the changing nature of citizenship and will conclude by recounting the government and media persecution recently experienced by one of the UK’s few remaining human rights firms.

Hilary Sommerlad is a Professor of Law and Social Justice at the School of Law, University of Leeds, exploring the potential for legal professions to promote access to justice internationally.