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Essay

How Antipoverty Advocates Can Go On The Offensive

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In the embers of the Supreme Court’s disastrous Grants Pass decision, a new form of necessity doctrine offers a ray of light. If private property owners’ exclusionary rights are meaningfully threatened, might the political will for ending homelessness and food insecurity finally emerge?
Symposium

The Not-So-Secret Lives of Trusts

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One common critique of trust law is that it exacerbates wealth inequality by creating layers of financial secrecy for families with substantial assets. Yet in facilitating the purchase of high-end real estate, private jets, and super-yachts, trust law also produces visible, even mappable effects on our physical landscape.
Essay

On Writing Down Our Dreams During a Living Nightmare

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When it’s time to rebuild from the wreckage of the Trump-Musk rampage, the left may have the opportunity to implement a truly transformative agenda. However, unless we have relatively detailed proposals ready in advance, we will lose out to those who merely want to reproduce what came before.
Weekly Roundup

Weekly Roundup: Feb 7

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Six perspectives on fissures on the right, Jed Kroncke on the rise of anti-democratic super-property, and Ben Sachs on what happens to labor preemption without a functioning labor board. Plus, our favorite pieces on the Treasury payments crisis, Blake Emerson on the systemic constitutional violations under Trump, Samuel Bagenstos on writing about the illegality. . .
Symposium

The Anti-Democratic Rise of Super-Property

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Trust law, originally devised as a way to protect the assets of vulnerable parties, has undergone a wholesale transformation in the past half-century. It now primarily serves the rich by providing them with a new form of super-property, insulated from taxation, reporting requirements, and creditor claims. How did this perversion of trust law come about? And. . .
Weekly Roundup

Weekly Roundup: Jan 31

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Gaurav Mukherjee on America’s first religious charter school, Beth Popp Berman on the relevance of policy-adjacent scholarship in a broken world, and Evan Bernick on the anti-constitutional attack on birthright citizenship. Plus, a lefty law conference at HLS, an(other!) event with Dean Spade, a CfP on offshore finance, and new pieces by Jan-Werner Müller,. . .
Essay

America’s First Religious Public School?

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This past Friday, the Supreme Court granted cert in a case that concerns the first religious charter school in the United States. But this case is not merely about school choice or religious freedom — it also reflects a broader contest over how law structures public responsibility and private power.
Weekly Roundup

Weekly Roundup: Jan 24

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A.J. Bauer on how to oppose Trumpism, Genevieve Lakier on the TikTok Ban and the limits of the First Amendment, and Chrystin Ondersma on a dignity-based approach to debt. Plus, upcoming events with Dean Spade on sticking together and Michael Fakhri on Palestianian Food Sovereignty, CFPs for workshops on social reproduction and the post-neoliberal moment. . .
Essay

A Dignity-Based Approach to Debt

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One in three Americans has a debt that has been handed over to a collection agency. Lawmakers continue to throw credit at the problem and punish borrowers when they struggle to repay. To escape this cycle, we need an approach to debt relief based on the principle of human dignity, a foundational concept in human rights law.
Weekly Roundup

Weekly Roundup: Jan 17

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Amy Kapczynski on institutional neutrality rules, and Greg Baltz on tenant union organizing in the shadow of law. Plus, a changing of the guard on the LPE editorial board, a CFP on Carceral Political Economy, a lunch talk with Dean Spade, two political-economy focused post-doc positions, Jasmine Harris on conservatorships, Jonathan Harris on the FTC’s non-compete. . .
Essay

Organizing In The Shadow Of The Law

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Tenant unions, unlike labor unions, operate without extensive federal, state, or local legislative schemes governing their form and behavior. This does not mean, however, that they are unaffected by the law. By looking at tenant unions at work in Kansas City, Chicago, and New York City, we can see the different ways in which law influences their form, tactics,. . .