The Law and Political Economy (LPE) Project brings together a network of scholars, practitioners, and students working to develop innovative intellectual, pedagogical, and political interventions to advance the study of political economy and law. Our work is rooted in the insight that politics and the economy cannot be separated and that both are constructed in essential respects by law. We believe that developments over the last several decades in legal scholarship and policy helped to facilitate rising inequality and precarity, political alienation, the entrenchment of racial hierarchies and intersectional exploitation, and ecological and social catastrophe. We aim to help reverse these trends by supporting scholarly work that maps where we have gone wrong, and that develops ideas and proposals to democratize our political economy and build a more just, equal, and sustainable future.
LPE project
Learn
A variety of resources designed to help faculty and students learn more about LPE, including syllabi from LPE and LPE-related courses, primers on topics such as neoliberalism and legal realism, as well as videos from a number of events we have held over the last year.
Go to LearnEngage
Information about the amazing work being done by LPE student groups, as well as guidance on starting a student group on your own campus! A bureau of affiliated professors and practitioners designed to help faculty and students to bring LPE scholars to their campuses!
Go to EngageEvents
A compendium of upcoming (and past) events put on by the LPE Project, LPE student groups, and other organizations in the LPE ecosystem.
Go to Events
Weekly Roundup: Nov. 6
Kate Jackson and Katharina Pistor conclude our symposium on The Law of Capitalism and How to Transform it, while Nicholas Almendares examines a novel deregulatory strategy at the SEC. Plus, ALPE announces a full-day pre-conference, Sabeel Rahman launches a new substack, Quinn Slobodian chats with Ezra Klein, the Guardian investigates Louisiana's for-profit eviction mills, and the Center for Civil Rights and Critical Justice invites you to an upcoming event on municipal governance and community empowerment.
We Were Wrong All Along: Deregulation by Disavowal
The SEC’s recent effort to rescind a longstanding shareholder-proposal rule reveals a novel strategy for entrenching deregulatory policy: disclaiming the authority to regulate in the first place.
Law as Institutionalized Power: A Response to My Critics
How should we think about the law in relation to the social? How do we understand the relation between public and private power in contemporary capitalism? And what would it take to transform our legal system? Katharina Pistor concludes our symposium on her recent book, The Law of Capitalism and How to Transform It.
Capitalism’s Long, Difficult, and Experimental Treatment Regimen
In Katharina Pistor’s penetrating diagnosis, the law that constitutes capitalism spreads like a virus, and the only plausible cure is a new code of just private law. If this is indeed the remedy, we must devise a treatment regimen, figure out how to administer it, and deal with any harmful side-effects.