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Professor Kieran McEvoy's co-authored article with Alex Batesmith (University of Leeds) “Closeted” Cause Lawyering in Authoritarian Cambodia (2025) 59(3) Law & Society Review 463, has been awarded the Socio-Legal Studies Association (SLSA) Article of the Year Prize.

The Prize was awarded at the SLSA conference held on 30 March 2026 at the University of Sussex, attended by over 750 lawyers from around the world. 

Using Cambodia as a case study, the article examines cause lawyering in a repressive political environment.  It focuses on “closeted” cause lawyering, a practice that we define as the intentional pursuit of change through the legal process that is concealed for strategic purposes.  Situated within the wider scholarship on (cause) lawyering in general and authoritarian Southeast Asia and China in particular, the article draws upon interviews conducted over seven years in Cambodia with 37 lawyers and human rights defenders working in practice areas considered politically controversial by the authoritarian state.  The authors identified how closeted cause lawyers operate in such a way as to ensure professional and personal survival while quietly advancing their goals across three settings, including dignity restoration work with clients, legal professionalism in court and sustaining a moral community of like-minded lawyers.  The article underscores the ongoing relevance of cause lawyering even where intentionality must be hidden, as well as the enduring importance of cause lawyers’ efforts to preserve an ideal of the rule of law.  The authors conclude by suggesting that the authoritarian turn in a range of democracies, including the Unites States, suggests that closeted cause lawyering may be required to defend democracy even among conventional lawyers.

Commenting on the Prize Professor McEvoy said:

'Alex and I were very pleased to receive this award, not least because it brings deserved attention to the clever and creative ways in which courageous Cambodian lawyers seek to protect human rights in an increasingly authoritarian state, which was ruled by Hun Sen for almost 40 years before he handed over power to his son Hun Manet.

Through dignity restoration work with clients, legal professionalism and sustaining a moral community these lawyers navigate repression, violence and corruption reminding lawyers everywhere in the Trump 2 era of their broader duty to uphold the rule of law.'  

Read the article .