Disrupting Public Defense: A Transitions Theory Approach

Authors

Matt Bender, Washburn University School of Law

First Page

243

Abstract

Public defense problems are well known, but a solution has been elusive. This Article analyzes public defense’s adaptive features using the Multi-Level Perspective (MLP) for the first time. The MLP is a theoretical framework that is often employed to study institutional and societal barriers to innovative ideas, like climate change responses and clean energy transitions. This Article describes the MLP’s theoretical model and uses it to examine why public defense reform consistently fails.

This Article then goes beyond the MLP framework to explore how transition management tools can be used to design and nurture new approaches to public defense. I focus my prescriptive analysis on holistic and participatory models, which are two emerging niches in public defense. The Article explains how innovation policy and transition management can also be used to support other law reform movements that offer transformative ideas.

Along with providing a new lens to understand public defense, this Article makes two other significant contributions. First, this Article introduces a new theoretical framework to legal scholarship that can be used to evaluate the impact of law and policy throughout society. Although I introduce transition theory concepts, this Article invites further discussion such as the best way to modify the MLP framework within the legal context and how legal analysis can enhance sustainable transition scholarship. Second, this Article offers new and practical strategies that can be used to nurture and advance other social justice movements or law reform projects.

Recommended Citation

Matt Bender, Disrupting Public Defense: A Transitions Theory Approach, 29 Lewis & Clark L. Rev. 243 (2025).
Available at: https://lawcommons.lclark.edu/lclr/vol29/iss2/2