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LPE Blog

From the Vault: LPE & Housing

A collection of our favorite posts about the legal underpinnings of today’s housing crisis, and about what might be done to restore a conception of housing as shelter, not commodity. Featuring Angela Harris, Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, David Stein, Kathryn Sabbeth, Duncan Kennedy, Karl Klare, Tara Raghuveer, and more!

Why Public Ownership?

Calls for public ownership often highlight the downsides of private ownership: how capitalist firms prioritize profit over providing quality services at fair prices. But what, specifically, do we value in its public counterpart? While Sandeep Vaheesan defends public ownership in the power sector primarily on democratic grounds, the left should emphasize its. . .

Democratic Abundance

What can the history of publicly-governed electrical utilities in the twentieth century teach us about today’s struggle for an accountable power sector? Sandeep Vaheesan kicks of a symposium on his new book, Democracy in Power, by tracing the history of electrification during the New Deal and offering a blueprint for a publicly-led path to. . .

Agencies Outflanked

Four Supreme Court decisions concerning the power of the administrative state have left agencies increasingly vulnerable to attack. Each decision is significant on its own, but together they underscore the precarious position of agency action today.

Weekly Roundup: May 23

Dan Farbman on abolitionist lessons for the present crisis, along with a round-up of some of the best new LPE and LPE-adjacent scholarship. Plus, a CFP on the law and political economy of contemporary authoritarian rule, Allison Tait revisits Henry Hansmann on endowments, Jed Purdy discusses Ecology and Democracy in a World on Fire, Talha Syed calls for. . .

Weekly Roundup: May 16

Salomé Viljoen on data governance and techno-authoritarians, Kelly Grotke on the foundations of the current crisis in higher ed, and Isaac Kamola on the role of dark money organizations in the campus speech wars. Plus, an incredible CFP for junior work and labor scholars, a special issue of the JLPE on securities law and climate change, Katharina Pistor. . .

Weekly Roundup: May 9

Nicholas Handler on the importance of federal labor unions and Ava Liu on Universal Basic Income and the politics of automation. Plus, last call for new spring scholarship, an upcoming event with Aziz Rana and Vijayashri Sripati, model legislation aimed at rising veterinary prices, and new pieces by Bernard Harcourt, Alex Hertel-Fernandez, and Alex Gourevitch.. . .

Beyond Redistribution: Rethinking UBI and the Politics of Automation

Silicon Valley tech bosses often promote Universal Basic Income as a progressive solution to job losses caused by automation. However, by portraying such displacement as inevitable rather than socially determined, these proposals obscure the critical role that power structures and market dynamics play in shaping technological innovation. They also fail. . .

Federal Labor Unions Strengthen the Administrative State

Many unitary executive proponents argue that federal labor rights undermine presidential power. This position is simplistic and short-sighted: labor rights offer the executive a different, more valuable form of power – expanded state capacity – that is necessary for modern presidents to deliver on their political priorities. And they so do. . .

Weekly Roundup: May 2

Ganesh Sitaraman on Antimonopoly and Artificial Intelligence, Ntina Tzouvala on Tariffs and Economic Sabotage, and Noa Ben-Asher on Trans Healthcare Bans and White Nationalism. Plus, a three-part interview series with Aziz Rana, Zohra Ahmed on the right-wing legal campaigns to kill progressive social movements, a spreadsheet of where law firms stand vis-a-vis. . .