LPE Blog

Symposium

The Stakes of Law as a Productive Force

By Ioannis Kampourakis

What follows, politically, from the idea that law is constitutive of capitalism? What theories of social change does this view make available, where does it locate possibilities for political agency, and what kinds of political energies might it unleash?

Weekly Roundup

Weekly Roundup: Oct. 16

By Editors

Katharina Pistor on the Law of Capitalism, and Ntina Tzouvala on capitalism beyond law. Plus, an upcoming event on governing for affordability, Aslı Bâli & Samuel Moyn on peace in a multipolar world, Hanna Folsz & Jake Grumbach on law firms folding and resistance, Sam Bagenstos on the “Nerd Circuit,” Teal Arcadi on the forgotten history. . .

Weekly Roundup

Weekly Roundup: Oct. 9

By Editors

Two new entries in our LPE vs. Law and Economies series: James Tierney considers what LPE could want from a method, and Darren Bush, Mark Glick, and Gabriel Lozada search far and wide for “contemporary” law and economics. Plus, an upcoming LPE Night School event on the NYC housing crisis, Sam Levine on governing AI for consumers and workers, Ben. . .

Symposium

Wherein Lies Contemporary Law and Economics?

By Darren Bush, Mark Glick, Gabriel A. Lozada

According to a recent defense of law and economics, contemporary practitioners have abandoned the idea that law should maximize economic efficiency and wealth. To test this claim, three economists reviewed twelve major law and economics textbooks.

Weekly Roundup

Weekly Roundup: Oct 2

By Editors

Marc Shkurovich on the case for public pharma, Katharina Pistor on the challenges of social democratic reform, and Yochai Benkler on taking social relations as the basic unit of analysis. Plus Niko Bowie and Daphne Renan on 5-4, Nate Holdren on Death Panel, new articles by Sanjukta Paul and Sandeep Vaheesan, and more!

Symposium

Taking Social Relations as the Basic Unit of Analysis

By Yochai Benkler

In capitalism, social relations of production exert outsized force on all other domains, distorting and warping relations of reproduction, protection, and meaning-making without fully annihilating their internal capacity to structure relations in their distinct domains. This approach to understanding society, in which social relations are taken as the. . .

Symposium

The New Institutional Political Economy of Capitalism

By Katharina Pistor

Any program of transformative change must reckon with the fact that capitalists have largely succeeded in de-legitimizing existing institutions, including the state itself.

Essay

The Time for Public Pharma is Now

By Marc Shkurovich

To make medicines more affordable, policymakers are increasingly turning to price controls and out-of-pocket caps. These measures, while lowering costs, leave decisions about which drugs to manufacture and distribute in private hands. If patients are to have reliable access to the medicines they need, the government must take on a more direct role in. . .

Weekly Roundup

Weekly Roundup: Sept. 25

By Editors

Jed Purdy discusses law’s role in capitalism, while Megan Wachspress explores how the data center boom risks privatizing the power grid. Plus, Beatrice Adler-Bolton and Gabe Winant on gerontocracy, Lev Menand and Lina Khan on jurisdiction stripping, Ron Knox on forgotten lessons about monopolies and fascism, Jed Purdy on Raymond Williams, Noura Erakat on. . .

Essay

The Neoliberal Grid is in Crisis

By Megan Wachspress

To protect customers from rising electricity prices, public officials are urging data center developers to supply their own power. But this approach risks privatizing the power grid, worsening the climate crisis, and eroding electricity’s status as a public good.

Symposium

Politics, Culture, and Capitalism

By Jedediah Britton-Purdy

How much autonomy does politics have from the prevailing economic order? And what role does culture play in shaping politics? Answers to these questions will help determine law’s potential role in advancing democratic efforts to shape the terms of common life.

Weekly Roundup

Weekly Roundup: Sept. 18

By Editors

Yochai Benkler on the dynamics of capitalism and law’s role within it, Matthew Dimick on capital and law as social forms, and Matthew Lawrence on administrative law after transsubstantivity. Plus, new books by Nikolas Bowie, Daphna Renan, and Allison Tait, a symposium on the global political economy of artificial intelligence, an upcoming event on. . .

Essay

Doing Applied Administrative Law

By Matthew B. Lawrence

Administrative law is often described as “transsubstantive”: in understanding, evaluating, and articulating the rules governing federal agency action across public health, environmental regulation, national security, and sundry other domains, law schools and legal scholarship treat administration as a single enterprise. What would it take to move beyond. . .

Symposium

Capital and Law as Social Forms

By Matthew Dimick

Where do profits come from? And how does law legitimate capitalism? To make progress on these questions, we must dig deeper into the nature of capital and the idea of the legal form.

LPE Masthead

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

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