This book provides an overview and analysis of the term 'lawfare', as it has come to describe a range of conflicts in which legal instruments are used to pursue political goals.

Jaume Castan Pinos is Associate Professor at the Department of Political Science and Public Management, University of Southern Denmark.

Mark Friis Hau is a postdoctoral researcher at the Employment Relations Research Centre (FAOS) at the Department of Sociology at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark.

Acknowledgements

1 Introduction

2 Geopolitical lawfare: legal instruments as weapons of war

2.1 Introduction

2.2 Why is geopolitical lawfare a popular tool?

2.3 Great powers' attitudes and strategies towards geopolitical lawfare

2.3.1 The US vis-à-vis geopolitical lawfare

2.3.2 Lawfare and the People's Republic of China

2.3.3 The Russian Federation and lawfare

2.4 Geopolitical lawfare methods in the international arena

2.4.1 Sanctions

2.4.2 Lawfare through intergovernmental organisations

2.4.3 Discursive lawfare

2.5 Conclusion

3 Domestic lawfare

3.1 Introduction

3.2 Related concepts

3.2.1 Judicialisation of politics

3.2.2 Power, law, and the state of exception

3.3 The effects of domestic lawfare on liberal democratic regimes

3.4 Applications of domestic lawfare

3.4.1 Soft domestic lawfare in Hungary and Poland?

3.4.2 Domestic lawfare in Latin America

3.5 Conclusion

4 Lawfare and territorial conflicts

4.1 Introduction

4.2 Rule of law in territorial conflicts

4.3 The legal dispossession of Native Americans

4.3.1 Situation

4.3.2 Analysis

4.3.3 Implications

4.4 State lawfare in Northern Ireland

4.4.1 Situation

4.4.2 Analysis

4.4.3 Implications

4.5 State lawfare in the Basque Country

4.5.1 Situation

4.5.2 Analysis

4.5.3 Implications

4.6 State lawfare in Catalonia

4.6.1 Situation

4.6.2 Analysis

4.6.3 Implications

4.7 Conclusion

5 Asymmetric lawfare: a weapon of the weak

5.1 Introduction

5.2 Civil society lawfare

5.3 Civil society lawfare: cases

5.3.1 The Ogoni case

5.3.2 The Dakota Access Pipeline protests

5.4 Lawfare from 'weak' governmental actors

5.5 Conclusion

6 Conclusion

Bibliography

Index