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Weekly Roundup: March 20
Weekly Roundup: March 20

Weekly Roundup: March 20

Beau Baumann on the lost art of constitutional politics, Hal Singer on the market definition trap, and Ben Gerstein on the political economy of settler retrenchment. Plus, Alexander Hertel-Fernandez and Paul Sonn explain how cities and states can help boost funding for labor organizations, Samuel Bagg and Shai Agmon discuss the critical role of friction in market competition, Adelle Waldman and Matt Bruenig propose a right to full-time scheduling, Daniel Steinmetz-Jenkins interviews Sophia Rosenfeld about the rise of personal choice in the modern world, and Diana Reddy flips the script on a transaction cost-centric analysis of employment.

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Whistling at the Edge of Law

The whistle is sounding in Minneapolis. The question before the legal profession is whether we will hear it, amplify it, and act accordingly, or instead insist that the ground eroding beneath our feet is temporary and manageable.

The Means-Testing Industrial Complex

As Republicans tightened work requirements and eligibility rules for Medicaid and SNAP last year, Equifax’s CEO openly celebrated the profits to be made from administering this deprivation. Means-testing and administrative complexity have turned America’s safety net into a lucrative revenue stream for monopolistic private contractors, underscoring the need for public data infrastructure and simpler eligibility rules.

Beyond Feasibility in Legal Scholarship

Law review articles are expected to conclude with a short section, often “Part IV,” that translates analysis into actionable prescriptions. Though well-intentioned, this convention constrains ambition, sidelines critique, and conflates near-term feasibility with rigor. In a moment of institutional unraveling and authoritarian threat, legal scholars and law review editors should resist the Part IV reflex and make space for bolder analyses, longer horizons, and more collective ways of imagining change.

Recent

The Political Economy of Settler Backlash

When courts recognize Indigenous sovereignty or jurisdiction over contested lands, governments and corporations often respond with warnings of potential economic chaos. These claims of uncertainty are not neutral forecasts but a recurring strategy of settler retrenchment aimed at preserving existing property regimes.

The Market Definition Trap

Antitrust defendants increasingly prevail not by disproving competitive harm, but by dragging plaintiffs into costly battles over market definition. As courts have broadened the rule of reason and complicated the evidentiary standards for proving market power, these threshold fights have become a structural barrier to antitrust enforcement.

Weekly Roundup: March 13

Seven of our favorite labor scholars and lawyers on how to revive a pro-labor vision of the Constitution, Jeena Shah on how to make sense of Trump’s contradictory treatment of Hernández and Maduro, Noam Maggor on how “good” and “bad” capitalists are not born but made. Plus, a definitive ranking of the top 5,000 legal scholars, an upcoming conference. . .

The Politics of Capitalist Legitimacy

At the core of Jason Jackson’s Traders, Speculators, and Captains of Industry is a longstanding conversation among Indian modernizers about how to identify and nurture the ‘right’ kind of capitalists. Yet this is not just an Indian story. Struggles over “good” and “bad” businessmen have structured political life in all capitalist societies,. . .

Weekly Roundup: March 6

Veena Dubal and Aziza Ahmed on how feminists transformed the law and science of AIDS, Luke Herrine on market governance in Trumpworld, and Aditya Balasubramanian on the misnomer of modern Indian capital. Plus, a new special issue on Law & Economics vs. Law & Political Economy, Shahrzad Shams and Todd N. Tucker make the progressive case for court. . .