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Symposium

Offset Frontiers, Fossil Capitalism and the Law

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The very idea of “offsetting” emissions requires the legal creation – and exploitation – of new sacrifice zones. Predictably, this approach has been a disaster for the environment. Less noticed, however, is the extent to which offsetting has warped the entire aim of environmental law.
Weekly Roundup

Weekly Roundup: June 2, 2023

By LPE Editors

Claire Dunning on the origins of the non-profit industrial complex, Lisa Knox, Hamid Yazdan Panah, and Serafin Andrade Lopez on organizing workers in California’s immigrant detention centers, and Noah Zatz on the pathways to solidarity between organized labor and the fight against mass incarceration. Plus, an LPE 101 event at LSA, Simon Torracinta on. . .
Symposium

From Work in Prison to Carcerality at Work

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How might organized labor be engaged in ending mass incarceration? One approach is to emphasize how carceral labor is exploited as a substitute for rights-bearing “free labor.” But the mere threat of substitution does not ensure solidarity. A more promising avenue is to consider how carcerality itself extends into so-called “free” labor. . .
Symposium

Strategic Lessons from Abolitionist Labor Struggle In Immigration Detention

By , ,

Since last summer, immigrants detained in California’s Mesa Verde and Golden State Annex detention centers have been on strike, demanding fair treatment as workers. Meanwhile, legal advocates have engaged in strategic policy campaigns and wage-and-hour litigation to support the strike from the outside. This partnership offers a valuable model for how. . .
Essay

The Origins of the Nonprofit Industrial Complex

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Despite receiving more revenue from the U.S. government than from private donors, the nonprofit sector is often cast as an independent realm that stands apart from both state and market. This picture is not merely misleading, but dangerous, as it naturalizes the idea that the needs of certain citizens are best met by private supplement, rather than by. . .
Weekly Roundup

Weekly Roundup: May 26, 2023

By LPE Editors

Martha McCluskey on tax policy and climate change, Han Lu and Bernard Callegari on fighting back against the exploitation of formerly incarcerated workers, and Andrew Ross and Aiyuba Thomas on the past, present, and future of the prisoners’ rights movement in Alabama. Plus, a new issue of the JLPE, a call for abstracts on courts and politics, a. . .
Essay

Tax Policy for a Climate in Crisis

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How can a Law and Political Economy approach guide the power of taxation toward democracy, justice, and a livable planet? As a start, it can help us understand that tax policy involves not only the power to redistribute market earnings, but also the power to transform market governance.
Weekly Roundup

Weekly Roundup: May 19, 2023

By LPE Editors

Joel Michaels on risk-weighting, Rebecca McLennan on the nineteenth-century roots of carceral labor, and Stephen Wilson, Minali Aggarwal, Jacqueline Groccia, and Lydia Villarong on why incarcerated people work. Plus, the hottest job in LPE Land is up for grabs, Saule Omarova and Ilmi Granoff discuss green banking, and Jed Britton-Purdy argues that the. . .
Symposium

Untangling the Nineteenth-Century Roots of Mass Incarceration

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Popular historical narratives often trace the origins of penal labor to the post-Civil War South. Yet as insightful and politically useful as this familiar story may be, it overlooks the vast system of forced penal servitude that took shape in the antebellum North. Untangling the nineteenth-century roots of mass incarceration and forced labor can help clarify. . .
Essay

Who Is Risk Taking For? Banking in the Shadow of SVB

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Silicon Valley Bank failed, in part, because it parked its cash in long-term U.S. government bonds. But why were Treasuries so attractive in the first place? One reason is that regulators assign the lowest possible risk-weight to U.S. government bonds. This favorable weighting does not, however, reflect a neutral assessment of actuarial risk. Rather, it. . .
Weekly Roundup

Weekly Roundup: May 12, 2023

By LPE Editors

Luke Herrine on the deep continuities of regulatory reform, Erin Hatton on the carceral state as a system of labor governance, and Ivan Kilgore on why incarcerated people should resist identifying as “workers.” Plus, Karen Tani on Thinking Like Guido Calabresi, Amna Akbar on the campaign against Cop City, a fun fact about the Supreme Court, and. . .
Symposium

Not Worker, But Chattel

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In this essay, the author draws on his experiences as an incarcerated organizer to argue for the importance of a Black abolitionist politic that resists both “work” and the adoption of the “worker” identity. Instead, the category of the slave-in-revolt is better suited to the project of abolitionist organizing.

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