Law and Social Movements

Abstract

Legal institutions, elites, and norms played an important role in the development of social movements over the latter half of the twentieth century, yet social movement scholars have only recently begun to take notice. The subfield of law and social movements has developed in two separate but increasingly integrated fields—legal scholarship and social movement scholarship—and has developed around two broad sets of research questions. First, is litigation an effective strategy for social movements? Second, what role does law play in shaping the trajectories of social movements? Early research tended to focus on the question of effectiveness, but more recent scholarship has expanded to include analyses focusing on the dynamic role that law plays in shaping movement trajectories. Here we focus on how legal institutions and strategies have been incorporated into existing social movement theories.

In the Name of the Law: Legal Frames and the Ending of the Occupy Movement in Hong Kong

“…At "a moment of social movement" within U.S. legal scholarship (Cummings 2018), there has been an increase in socio-legal studies of law and social movements (Boutcher and Stobaugh 2013). Researchers have suggested that legal rules and institutions can become a movement's opportunity structure that is exploited by activists (Pedriana 2004;Andersen 2009), and litigation can be a valuable resource to support the movement (McCann 1994).…”

Lawyers and Embedded Legal Activity in the Southern Civil Rights Movement

“…Balanced against this line of scholarship critical of litigation's effectiveness for movements is a more recent approach to the study of law as a means for movements to claim rights, frame grievances, and generate collective identities. According to this approach, the relationship between law and movements is dynamic, and “law structures the very terrain that activists navigate in their struggles to reconstitute social relations” (Boutcher and Stobaugh , 2). For instance, McCann () explores the ways in which failed attempts to mobilize the law for pay equity had significant impacts on other forms of movement activity.…”

“…When scholars examine the role of law in political contention, two broad approaches have historically been taken (for recent reviews of this scholarship, see Boutcher and McCammon forthcoming;McCammon and McGrath 2015;Boutcher and Stobaugh 2013;Edelman, Leachman, and Mcadam 2010). On the one hand, early scholars of law and social movements focused on whether law and legal mobilization by movements are effective means of achieving movement goals.…”

Constitución de 1991, Ley de Cuotas y movimiento feminista: el papel del derecho en la generación de estructuras de movilización

“…Por último, porque el afán por responder la pregunta por la utilidad ha implicado que la literatura conceptualice de manera poco precisa el rol del derecho en la movilización. Aunque hay múltiples observaciones empíricas sobre los efectos del uso del derecho para la movilización, no hay una teoría que de cuenta de esto (Boutcher & Stobaugh, 2013).…”