Scheppele emphasizes that autocratic legalism creates a trap for domestic and international actors:

The malice lies not in the individual laws, but in their toxic intersection. Stripped of the structural checks and balances that exist in their original jurisdictions, these borrowed provisions combine to form a monstrous constitutional entity designed to centralize total executive control. Global Applications: From Hungary to the Global South

: Parliaments are sidelined through majoritarian bullying, decree powers, or structural rule changes.

Unlike the violent military coups of the 20th century, 21st-century autocrats do not break the law; they change it. By abusing constitutional amendments, exploiting procedural loopholes, and weaponizing the judicial system, leaders project a false veneer of international and domestic legitimacy.

In Brazil, scholars have extended Scheppele's framework to analyze the Bolsonaro era. Marina Barreto, in a 2023 article, proposed the concept of "autocratic infra-legalism" to describe how the Bolsonaro administration used administrative legal tools rather than formal constitutional changes to advance its illiberal agenda, offering a counter-argument to Scheppele's original thesis. This academic debate illustrates how Scheppele's framework continues to generate new theoretical developments as scholars apply it to different national contexts.