Lawfare from below

Legal Mobilisation or 'lawfare from below' is the use of existing law and legal institutions by non-state actors who seek to advance a social or political goal. This may be a formal process where cases are taken to courts of law or informal use of rights-language to create social and political pressure out-of-court. Lawfare is often aimed at concrete goals for particular individuals or groups, for example preventing the building of a hydroelectric dam threatening the environment and the land rights, welfare and culture of indigenous people living in the area. But the goals can also be a more general, such as improved health care for prisoners, gender justice, or improved climate policies. In some cases parties from different sides of the ideological spectrum use legal arenas to fight battles over highly morally charged issues such as sexual and reproductive rights (homosexuality, abortion etc), creating special challenges for the courts. Through a range of projects and activities we seeks to better understand the dynamics that lead groups to engage in lawfare in particular contexts and around particular issues: what makes this more successful in some cases than in other; and what the - intended and unintended- effects are. Tha latter is a core concern: to develop better methods for securely establishing the material, political and symbolic effects of different forms of lawfare in diverse contexts.