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Essay

Presidents Are Strong, But Super-Groups Can Be Stronger

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Is the power wielded by interests groups ultimately good or bad? To answer this question, we need to distinguish ordinary interest groups from super-groups, like the American Medical Association, whose legal empowerment makes them legitimate targets for democratic contestation and provides a principled basis on which to assess their political influence.
Weekly Roundup

Weekly Roundup: Dec. 13

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Beau Baumann and James Goodwin on the LPE of Congress, Shai Karp on landlords as petty tyrants, and a listicle of our favorite LPE posts on technology. Plus, Tara Raghuveer and Ruthy Gourevitch on tenant unions, Suzanne Kahn on feminist progressive populism, good news from the trenches of the EPA and FTC, Alvin Velazquez on bankrupt cities and federal disaster. . .
Symposium

From the Vault: LPE & Tech

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To accompany your new holiday gizmos and gadgets, we reach into the vault and highlight some of our favorite posts on technology, featuring Salomé Viljoen, Veena Dubal, Frank Pasquale, Yochai Benkler, Raúl Carrillo, Meredith Whittaker, Genevieve Lakier & Nelson Tebbe, Matthew Bodie, Elizabeth Joh, and Julie Cohen.
Essay

Rent Strikes as a Righteous Form of Resistance

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Landlords wield significant power over tenants — including the power to set prices, surveil, neglect, harass, and evict — while legal processes offer little to tenants in terms of protection or means of redress when their rights are violated. Withholding rent in response to mistreatment is one righteous way of resisting such domination.
Essay

What Does LPE Have to Say About Congress?

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In recent years, the LPE movement has generated compelling positions on the limits of the courts and the promise of the administrative state. Yet it is striking how little it has had to say about about legislative procedure and politics. By focusing on how power can be durably built in Congress, LPE scholars could help envision democratic alternatives to. . .
Weekly Roundup

Weekly Roundup: Dec. 6

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Alexander Hertel-Fernandez on workplace surveillance, Luke Herrine on midcentury meatpacking competition, Eamonn Coburn on abusive labor practices as unfair competition, Alex Gourevitch and Christopher Muller on race, labor exploitation, and incarceration, and the Critical Legal Collective on DEI Statements. Plus, Harvard LPE is looking for a new director, a. . .
Essay

Did More Competition Make Meatpacking Fairer?

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According to a common antimonopoly narrative, prior to the merger wave of the 1980s, antitrust enforcement kept the meatpacking industry competitive and relatively decentralized — a situation that enhanced farmers’ autonomy and bargaining power. Yet a closer look at the historical record reveals that this fierce midcentury competition also undermined. . .
Weekly Roundup

Weekly Roundup: November 22

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Tara Pincock on meager price-fixing enforcement, Andrea Cann Chandrasekher on consumer redlining, and Alvin Velazquez on bankruptcy proceedings in Puerto Rico. Plus, the History & Political Economy joins the ranks of the blog army, a new paper on the labor consequences of insurer mergers, Lenore Palladino and Harrison Karlewicz on the myth that shareholders. . .
Essay

How Bankruptcy Prioritizes Property Rights Over Public Good

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After a recent First Circuit decision, private creditors’ bankruptcy rights pose an existential threat to the only electric utility in Puerto Rico. As this outcome shows, we need a new approach to balancing the interests at stake in bankruptcy proceedings — one that protects private property, but not at the expense of undermining major public goods.. . .

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Managing Editor James Brandt Editoral Board Zohra Ahmed Corinne Blalock Veena Dubal Luke Herrine Amy Kapczynski Aziz Rana Kate Redburn Ntina Tzouvala Lisa Washington Noah Zatz Student Editors Liz Brown Edie Conekin-Tooze Eve Zelickson
Student Editor Emeriti Sam Aber Ashraf Ahmed Will Bloom Adam H. Bradlow Matthew Buck Brett Davidson Isabel Echarte Tariq El-Gabalawy Berto Elysee Molly Gordon Jeff Gordon Ruthie Lazenby Talya Lockman-Fine Chloe Miller Andrew Miller Roxana Moussavian Lydia Nicholson Ure Obioma