Law and Social Movements

Abstract

Legal institutions, elites, and norms played an important role in the development of social movements over the latter half of the twentieth century, yet social movement scholars have only recently begun to take notice. The subfield of law and social movements has developed in two separate but increasingly integrated fields – legal scholarship and social movement scholarship – and has developed around two broad sets of research questions. First, is litigation an effective strategy for social movements? Second, what role does law play in shaping the trajectories of social movements? Early research tended to focus on the question of effectiveness, but more recent scholarship has expanded to include analyses focusing on the dynamic role that law plays in shaping movement trajectories. This entry focuses on how legal institutions and strategies have been incorporated into existing social movement theories.