Using post-colonial Hong Kong as a case study, this book examines why and how legal mobilization arises in authoritarian regimes.

1. Introduction: explaining the rise of legal mobilization in post-colonial Hong Kong; 2. The growth of legal mobilization in post-colonial Hong Kong; 3. Critical antecedent ¿ legal complex; 4. The opening of new legal opportunities; 5. The reversal of political opportunities; 6. The political origins of cause lawyering in Hong Kong; 7. Cause lawyers as transformative agents; 8. Rights advocacy groups as transformative agents; 9. The impacts of the judicialization of politics; 10. Conclusion: theoretical and comparative contributions; Appendix 1. Human rights and public policy litigation the Privy Council and the Court of Final Appeal decided (1981¿2010); Appendix 2. Important litigation brought by pro-democracy politicians and social activists to the Court of Appeal (CoA) and the Court of First Instance (CFI) (1981¿2010); Appendix 3. List of interviewees (alphabetical by category).

Waikeung Tam is Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science at Lingnan University, Hong Kong.