“Autocratization Dynamics” (AutDyn) investigates the forces and actors that push societies in illiberal and autocratic directions, as well as the conditions that stimulate and enable democratic resistance. The project pursues this agenda in collaboration with partner institutions through faculty and student exchanges; the design of research-intensive PhD, MA, and BA-level courses grounded in principles of student-active and student-led learning; and the joint development of new research initiatives addressing different dimensions of the AutDyn problematic. AutDyn brings together a broad consortium of institutions: from Brazil (FGV, USP), Canada (McGill), India (CPR), South Africa (Wits), the United States (UT-Austin, Syracuse, Cornell, UCF, UW), and Norway (UiB, CMI).
A central pillar of the project is the PhD course “Effects of Lawfare: Courts & Law as Battlegrounds of Social Change”, held annually at the University of Bergen (UiB), with a dedicated track on “Democracy, Legalized Autocratization, and Resistance.” In 2025, 17 students from AutDyn partner institutions participated. Some of the PhD students also joined the annual project workshop, where they contributed with their experiences and perspectives on student-led learning.
The PhD course and the AutDyn project workshop are integrated into the international research conference “Bergen Exchanges on Law & Social Transformation” (BeEx). Autocratization Dynamics was a main focus at BeEx2025, with a total of 12 project-related sessions. Themes included: “Autocratization Dynamics & Legalized Politics of Resistance: Global Perspectives,” “Activist Strategies in Repressive Conditions,” “Art as Resistance & Transformation,” “Freedom of Speech & Democratic Backsliding,” “High Courts: A Political Theory of Institutional Strength,” “Autocracies as International Lawmakers,” “The Future of International Human Rights Law,” “Autocratization, Indigenous Rights & Climate Governance,” and “Gender Lawfare in Legal & Digital Arenas.” The sessions—combining keynote lectures and roundtable discussions—saw broad participation from AutDyn project partners and PhD students. The final conference session was devoted to the PhD course and to discussions on how to further strengthen its pedagogical outcomes.
BeEx provides rich opportunities for developing new project ideas, and the more than 40 academic and social events also provide exceptional opportunities for networking—which is of particular value to young scholars from partner institutions and from the Global South.
As part of AutDyn’s focus on student-led learning, PhD students from UiB and FGV Law School (Brazil) in spring 2025 participated in the development and teaching of the interdisciplinary BA course “Constitution, Courts & Politics” (UiB JUS/GOV), as well as the MA/PhD courses “Sex & Politics” (UiB SKOK/LawTransform) and “Climate Politics & Autocratization” (UiB GlobalGOV). The MA courses for UiB students were combined with 2-day international PhD conferences with participants from partner institutions. Danielle Rached from the University of São Paulo (USP, Brazil) collaborated in the development of Climate Politics & Autocratization and delivered a public lecture in connection with the PhD conference.
The South-South Network, an active network of young scholars from and in the Global South, was established after the BeEx PhD course in 2022. New members have joined after each subsequent PhD course. They collaborated on a special issue in 2024 and are now working on their second joint publication, a book on “Gendered Autocratization,” scheduled for completion in 2025.
A number of new joint research and teaching innovation proposals have emerged from the AutDyn project, addressing themes such as resistance to autocratization, protest as democratic participation, gendered autocratization, indigenous rights, and climate transformation. A new teaching-oriented mobility project, “A Global Classroom for Global Challenges,” also grew out of AutDyn and featured its own session at BeEx2025, strengthening synergies between the initiatives.
In autumn 2024, the AutDyn-project's first student exchange from UiB took place, when a student from the "Politics and Governance of Global Challenges! program went to stay at USP, Brazil for 6 months. This was a highly successful exchange, and an English-taught course on “Climate Justice” was established at USP as part of the AutDyn collaboration. We have also secured an institutional agreement on a joint PhD degree (cotutelle) between FGV São Paulo Law School and UiB (Political Science). The first Brazilian PhD student under this agreement arrived in Bergen in August 2025 and will stay until March 2026.
"Autocratization Dynamics" aims to further strengthen UiB-CMI LawTransform as a global hub for research at the intersection of law and politics, and as a leading centre for innovations in horizontal research-embedded education, by forging long-term partnerships with leading research and educational institutions in the field. With partner institutions drawn from among the strongest education and research institutions in Brazil, Canada, India, Norway South Africa and the United States, we aim to create new research on the effects of autocratization dynamics across the globe. The proposed collaboration will secure the advancement of research and education of the highest quality in Norway by developing new interdisciplinary research projects deepening our efforts to understand the role of law in authoritarian dynamics – both in the global south and in the north – and how this plays out in key policy areas. Through innovative research-embedded course developments and student-driven teaching modules Autocratization Dynamics will confront the challenging global environment of competing information streams and where factual information increasingly is politicized and the value of science and academic freedom undermined. To better understand the challenges posed by autocratization and how legal tools may be used to legitimize undemocratic politics, a key aim of all universities in our consortium is to educate students to become active and critical producers of knowledge. To do so, we aim to create a partnership between researchers and students where the students are in the driver's seat in the development of courses and research projects. LawTransform has significant experience facilitating horizontal exchange on research ideas between senior and junior scholars; building international, interdisciplinary partnerships on research projects, and cross-faculty and cross-institutional teaching, both face-to face and digital. The project will build on and further develop this.
