Book Review: Jeff Handmaker, 'Legal Mobilization: Assessing the Potential and Limits of Law-based Civic Advocacy' (Edward Elgar 2026)

Abstract

This review examines the book Legal Mobilization: Assessing the Potential and Limits of Law-based Civic Advocacy by Jeff Handmaker, situating the book within contemporary socio-legal scholarship on legal mobilization, rights consciousness, and law-based civic advocacy. The review argues that Handmaker makes a significant contribution by analysing how civil society actors strategically deploy legal norms, institutions, and discourse across a range of political and institutional contexts. Particular attention is given to the book’s treatment of migration governance, restrictions on civic space, emergency governance during the COVID-19 pandemic, and legal disputes surrounding the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement. The review highlights Handmaker’s balanced approach to the relationship between law and power, rejecting both overly optimistic and overly sceptical accounts of rights-based advocacy. It further considers the book’s engagement with broader international and European human rights frameworks, including jurisprudence from the European Court of Human Rights. The review concludes that the book offers a grounded and analytically nuanced account of the possibilities and limitations of legal mobilization in contemporary struggles over rights, legitimacy, and political contestation.