The Legal Profession in Battle: Cause Lawyers Versus State-Embedded Lawyers in Hong Kong's Democratization

Abstract

The existing literature has long recognized that cause lawyers play important roles in fighting for political justice. However, the implications of how the state responds to these lawyers have yet to be comprehensively explored. This article argues that the state in Hong Kong has co-opted “state-embedded lawyers” against cause lawyers for the counter-mobilizing of public opinion. Thus, both cause lawyers and state-embedded lawyers engage in political battles with polarized objectives, either for democratic reform or regime stability. Theoretically, this paper contributes to analyzing the state's response to cause lawyering and its counter-mobilization actions by developing state-embedded lawyers. Empirically, the case of Hong Kong helps enrich the existing literature by exploring the confrontational relations within polarized legal professions. The conclusion shows that such tensions can stimulate further polarization with different business paths between lawyers, consumption patterns among citizens and understanding of the rule of law and responses from mainland China.