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LPE Blog

Weekly Roundup: November 1

Eight experts on Palestinian liberation and international law, Luke Herrine on the little-noticed revolution in Consumer Protection, Alex Gourevitch on the anti-democratic power of the entrepreneurial elite, and Brandon Weiss and Michael Karam on the prospects for major housing regulations in a post-Chevron world. Plus, a call for legal volunteers around. . .

Have You Heard the Good News About Consumer Protection?

Recent years have witnessed a sea change in consumer protection, ushered in by a new generation of enforcers who reject many of the basic premises from the neoliberal era. They aim not merely to ensure that consumers have the information necessary to discipline firms through choice, but to prevent businesses from using their power to shape markets in. . .

Weekly Roundup: Oct. 25

Zohra Ahmed on the role that criminal fines and fees play in financing the state, Miguel Ruiz on the role of law and social movements in the fight against Spain’s chronic housing crisis, and Matthew Glover and Joshua Ingram on fascism from an Afrikan perspective. Plus, a call for (your!) recently accepted LPE scholarship, an internship with the. . .

On Fascism: An Afrikan Perspective

While current analyses of fascism tend to focus on interwar Europe, for George Jackson and other political prisoners, fascism represented the general tendency of the capitalist class to destroy revolutionary consciousness wherever it threatened the established economic order. On this view, rather than being a twentieth-century ideology, fascism was already. . .

Enough! The Spanish Fight to Limit Housing Speculation

Throughout Spain, social movements are fighting against a chronic housing crisis caused by an influx of tourists and international capital. In this struggle, law is often a reflection of the existing neoliberal power structure, but with the support of sustained popular mobilizations, it has also served as a tool for emancipation.

The Role of Coercion in the Neoliberal Economy

As neoliberal attacks on progressive taxation emptied public coffers, states and municipalities increasingly turned to fines and fees to generate revenue. More fundamentally, criminal punishment became a necessary correlate to a state that must enforce property rights against an ever-growing multitude.

Weekly Roundup: Oct. 18

The LPE Blog goes global: the editors share some of our favorite recent global LPE and LPE-adjacent scholarship, Meena Jagannath and Felipe Mesel kick off a series on movement lawyering in times of rising authoritarianism, and Lamine Benghazi analyzes Tunisia’s failed democratic transition. Plus, a fellowship in carceral studies, a symposium on. . .

Weekly Roundup: Oct. 11

Greg Baltz on Abolish Rent, Chaumtoli Huq on the student uprising in Bangladesh, and Etienne Toussaint on Afrofuturist legal critique. Plus, an upcoming event on Sandeep Vaheesan’s Democracy in Power, an interview with Brian Highsmith on company towns old and new, a bombshell in Colorado’s Kroger-Albertsons merger trial, a. . .

Octavia Butler and Afrofuturist Legal Critique

Butler’s speculative fiction uses the freedom dreams of Black Americans to show how the structure of a political economy not only reflects but also shapes legal concepts. By challenging the perceived permanence of existing power structures, Afrofuturism creates space for envisioning new, emancipatory futures.

All Power To The Tenants

Tracy Rosenthal and Leonardo Vilchis’ new book, Abolish Rent: How Tenants Can End the Housing Crisis, is both a polemic and a guide. Drawing on their experiences organizing with the Los Angeles Tenants Union, Rosenthal and Vilchis envision a world where tenants control housing – a liberatory horizon that legal scholars, lawyers, and law. . .