The Global Legal Studies Center at the University of Wisconsin Law School will be hosting a panel discussion on modes of resistance to autocracy and authoritarianism on March 23, 2023. The goal of this panel is to build on the discussions held at a meeting of scholars making up the Global Resistance to Authoritarian Diffusion Consortium (GRAD) held at King’s College London in November 2022. The panel in March will feature scholars participating in GRAD, which is an international network of institutional partners dedicated to researching modalities of resistance to autocratic rule. In studying alternative strategies of resistance across jurisdictions, GRAD aims to provide crucial insight into combating and reversing global trends of authoritarianism. In their presentations, the participants will share their work on how grassroots, intra-national, and transnational resistance efforts have challenged autocratic rule. GRAD partner institutions include the Global Legal Studies Center at the University of Wisconsin Law School, the Transnational Law Institute at King’s College London, and Escola de Direito de São Paulo da Fundação Getulio Vargas (Law School of FGV São Paulo).
Each of the panelists will be asked to draw on their own areas of expertise and work on resistance to autocracy to identify and explore different modes of resistance to authoritarianism and autocracy. Ideally, each panelist will use their ten minutes to discuss examples and forms of resistance strategies in their country or region of focus with an emphasis on a) grassroots or non-governmental resistance, including transnational resistance measures by these groups; and b) intra-national or institutional resistance to authoritarianism and autocracy. Through identifying and sharing examples of modes of resistance by activists, social movements, and lawyers across several of our selected jurisdictions, we hope to generate new insight into how these strategies might resonate or connect with one another and the broader GRAD project.
