Lawyers and Movements : Legal Mobilization in Transformative Times

In Lawyers and Social Movements, Scott L. Cummings explores the role of lawyers in social movements at a moment in which that role has taken center stage in American legal theory and practice. This book is a comprehensive analysis of how lawyers mobilize law to advance movement goals and what impact they have within liberal democracy. Cumimings'' central contribution is to show how lawyers act as allies-and sometimes leaders-in struggles for transformative and enduring democratic change.

An innovative approach for understanding how law matters in contemporary social movements that rise to meet the twin challenges of American democracy: promoting liberal values of equality and inclusion, while fortifying the rule of law itself.Fifty years after the Civil Rights Movement, America confronts a new democratic reckoning. What role do-and should-lawyers play in strengthening collective action at this pivotal moment? In Lawyers and Movements, Scott L. Cummings offers an innovative answer to this age-old question, breaking from the legacy of legal liberalism to reveal the essential, yet underappreciated, work of lawyers in social struggle-redefining legal mobilization in transformative times. Building from a sweeping analysis of progressive legal theory and practice, Cummings challenges foundational critiques of lawyers as inaccurate and ill-suited to the current context. In response, he advances a new theory of legal mobilization in which control over law is at the heart of movements rising to meet the twin challenges of contemporary liberalism: promoting inclusion and equity, while fortifying democratic institutions. A call to radically rethink how lawyers contribute to progressive change, Lawyers and Movements asserts a timely challenge to democracy in crisis.