For most of the modern era, law and politics have worked because each stayed in its own lane. Courts decide, legislatures debate, lawyers advocate, and each keeps the others honest. That balance is now under real strain, not from one dramatic event, but from a slow, deliberate erosion happening around the world.
The numbers back this up. According to the World Justice Project, 68% of countries saw their rule of law scores decline in 2025, up from 57% the year before. The decline is concentrated exactly where law and politics meet: oversight of executive power weakened in 61% of countries. As one expert put it, when government isn’t held to clear, equally applied rules, the confidence needed for long-term stability collapses.
What makes this moment different is the method. Independent judiciaries today are rarely dismantled by coup or revolution. They’re dismantled through law itself, as leaders invoke reform or efficiency to justify stripping courts of their power to check government. Common tactics include taking over judicial councils, cutting court resources, and going after lawyers directly.
That last part matters. The independence of lawyers, their ability to represent unpopular clients and challenge government without fear of retaliation, is treated internationally as a cornerstone of the rule of law itself. In Iran, defense lawyers have faced what the International Bar Association calls a systematic assault. In China, lawyers taking on sensitive clients continue to face license revocations. In the United States, executive orders this year targeted specific law firms for representing the administration’s political opponents, prompting an amicus brief from more than two dozen bar associations. These U.S. measures are still working through litigation, and reasonable people disagree on where legitimate accountability ends and improper interference begins. That disagreement itself illustrates the broader tension.
It isn’t all decline, though. In Brazil, a proposed amendment that would have limited judicial oversight of lawmakers was struck down after mass protests. The European Court of Justice has taken an assertive stance this year, ruling against member states that violated EU legal standards.
For lawyers, all this raises the stakes of ordinary work. Legal practice has always been part technical craft, part public trust. When institutions are stable, that public dimension fades into the background. When they’re contested, it comes back to the front, whether lawyers seek that role or not.
The core point isn’t really up for debate, even if the politics around individual cases are: an independent bar and an independent judiciary aren’t optional features of democracy. They’re load-bearing ones. When either weakens, the ability of ordinary people to hold power accountable weakens with it.
Sources
World Justice Project, Rule of Law Index 2025, via ABA Business Law Today
Frontiers in Political Science, “Courts in the storm,” 2026
ConstitutionNet, “A Year in Constitution-Building”
International Bar Association
New York City Bar Association
European Commission, 2026 Rule of Law Report coverage