Thank you for your interest in our book. To extend the book’s impact, we are offering a set of additional resources for teachers, professors, and others to accompany their reading and learning.
The Revolution Will Not Be Litigated is not a typical classroom or legal book. The practice of law comes with a responsibility to be attuned to issues of fairness and justice. But far too often, law is practiced through a culture of business-as-usual. The powerful have used the tools of law at their disposal – in government, academia, media, finance, religion, the military – to resist change and preserve their power. But how can law shift, redistribute, or reallocate power in society? This is the fundamental question the book has set out to answer: not just whether it is possible, but how it can be done.
CLASSROOM DISCUSSION GUIDE
The Revolution Will Not Be Litigated is not a typical classroom or legal book. We believe that the practice of law comes with a responsibility to be attuned to issues of fairness and justice. But far too often, law is practiced through a culture of business-as-usual. The powerful have used the tools of law at their disposal – in government, academia, media, finance, religion, the military – to resist change and preserve their power. The book asks: how can the law shift, redistribute, or reallocate power in society?
This discussion guide is intended for pre-law, law school or political science classrooms, or any interested reader, who has read a section or the whole book and wants to know more about movement lawyering. Please adapt the guide below to fit your classroom needs.
In this document, Katie Redford (co-editor) describes her experience grappling with her original intentions of attending law school and the reality of practicing law. She offers her top ten pieces of advice for lawyers who want to think differently about the role of law in our societies. Ask students to read “Rules for Radical Lawyers,” and then facilitate a discussion based on the questions provided in the PDF.
RULES FOR RADICAL LAWYERSIn this video series, students and readers can further their learning about movement lawyering and how to bring about transformational change. Ask students to watch the video, and then facilitate a discussion based on the questions provided.
Movement Lawyering: The Power Of Law, The Power Of People
In this video, students will learn about the relationship between movement building and legal strategies, and why they must be symbiotic and interdependent.
1. How does the country or culture you grew up in impact your understanding of law, and its use in society?
2. Why is community development important to challenging human rights abuse?
3. Lawyers are masters of legal procedure, but this video argues they must also be masters of what unleashes power outside the courtroom. What are those skill sets? How can law schools give lawyers an opportunity to learn these skills?
What Is A Movement?
In this video, students will hear from experts about their definitions of movements and in some cases, their experiences being part of them.
1. Talk about a movement you have seen in your lifetime. Does it resonate with the description of movements in this video?
2. The narrator describes that movements are not static like an organization or campaign, and the most effective often resist structure. How does this contrast with your experience with the law?
Justice Is About Shifting Power, Not Just Winning A Case
In this video, students will learn why the journey towards justice does not end with a courtroom victory, and what that means for movements.
1. Compensation means making up for what you did wrong with money. How is that different from justice?
2. Why is it important that people and movements understand court decisions? What can happen if they do not?
3. How could you have modeled Baher Azmy’s model of “confrontation, resilience and demand” in one of your cases?
Power Begins To Shift When You Tell Your Story
In this video, students will learn why storytelling can be a powerful tool to move towards justice for human rights abuses, and how to manage clients’ stories with care.
1. What makes storytelling different from presenting facts or figures? How has a story changed your opinion?
2. Legal cases often address narrow questions, but lawyers help build public support for the larger social injustice at hand. Share ideas on how to involve the public or movements in your own legal work.
3. What are strategies to avoid extractive lawyering?
Can Movement Lawyering Shift Power?
In this video, students will learn about the law’s limitations and how we can work within it and expand it.
1. Audre Lorde said that ''The Master's Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master's House” What are some examples of the “master’s tools” in society?
2. What would you do if you were asked to support community goals that go beyond your own litigation strategy?
3. Julia Lalla-Maharajh shared that it isn’t one blunt instrument that forces change, there is a whole toolbox out there. What are some ways that the lawyers in this video have used a variety of tools, and how has it shifted power relations?
