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Weekly Roundup

Weekly Roundup: April 17

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Ben Kaufman discusses our broken banking bargain, and Vincent Joralemon reflects on the neglected class dimension of addictive platform design. Plus, a call for (your!) hot new LPE scholarship, an upcoming event on the law, politics, and economy of apocalypse, Christine Desan on the constitutional conflict over the power to make money, a new strategic agenda. . .
Essay

The Class Politics of the Feed

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By targeting the addictive design features of social media platforms, K.G.M. v. Meta marks a breakthrough in product liability law. Yet the case also reveals a neglected class dimension: the harms of addictive platform design fall most heavily on those with the fewest alternatives. In addition to regulating these harmful products, we must build. . .
Essay

Banks Have Abandoned Their Public Purpose

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At the core of the U.S. banking system is the public’s choice to delegate money-creation privileges to private actors. But what is the public getting in exchange? An ever-swelling suite of predatory credit products and few basic services. It’s time to reset the terms of the bargain.
Essay

The Student Loan Conjuncture

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While student loan repayment has resumed, stability is an illusion. Beneath the surface, mounting delinquency, administrative chaos, and the potential dismantling of federal loan management point to a deeper crisis in the governance of higher education finance.
Weekly Roundup

Weekly Roundup: April 3

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Ruthy Gourevitch and Jacob Udell on financial distress in the rental market, Alaa Hajyahia and Helen Zhao on the scourge known as the Jones Act, and Kathleen Frydl on how corporations hijacked identity politics. Plus, Lina Khan and Lev Menand’s new center for law and the economy, Niko Bowie and Daphna Renan’s new book on judicial supremacy, a. . .
Essay

How Corporations Hijacked Identity Politics

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Over the past fifty years, corporate advocates have co-opted the language and tactics of modern social movements to graft identity-based attributes onto the corporate entity. These new, personalized dimensions are deployed to weaken corporate regulations and, unlike more traditional forms of lobbying, endure beyond any single campaign. Taken together, they. . .
Essay

A Century of Colonial Tariffs

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Waived overnight in response to a crisis for capital but maintained in the face of protest from former and current territories, the Jones Act has a colonial logic that is impossible to ignore. Yet recent constitutional challenges have done precisely that, refusing to acknowledge the Act’s imperial origins and on-going economic harms.
Weekly Roundup

Weekly Roundup: March 27

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Sam Moyn and Jamelle Bouie on legislative supremacy, Mariano Féliz on Argentina’s debt sustainability, Ntina Tzvouala on dollar hegemony (x2), Ivana Isailović on the LPE of Social Reproduction in the EU, Mohini Mookim and Veryl Pow on prefigurative lawyering, Adam Hanieh on the economic significance of the Strait of Hormuz, and JW Mason on his. . .
Essay

Of LPE and Legislative Supremacy

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Beau Baumann’s case for legislative supremacy offers a compelling vision for the left. However, branding it as a form of “constitutional politics” risks obscuring its deeper claim: that nothing, not even the Constitution, should stand above democratic lawmaking. His vision will also face significant opposition from liberals and progressives, many. . .
Weekly Roundup

Weekly Roundup: March 20

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Beau Baumann on the lost art of constitutional politics, Hal Singer on the market definition trap, and Ben Gerstein on the political economy of settler retrenchment. Plus, Alexander Hertel-Fernandez and Paul Sonn explain how cities and states can help boost funding for labor organizations, Samuel Bagg and Shai Agmon discuss the critical role of friction in. . .
Essay

The Political Economy of Settler Backlash

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When courts recognize Indigenous sovereignty or jurisdiction over contested lands, governments and corporations often respond with warnings of potential economic chaos. These claims of uncertainty are not neutral forecasts but a recurring strategy of settler retrenchment aimed at preserving existing property regimes.
Essay

The Market Definition Trap

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Antitrust defendants increasingly prevail not by disproving competitive harm, but by dragging plaintiffs into costly battles over market definition. As courts have broadened the rule of reason and complicated the evidentiary standards for proving market power, these threshold fights have become a structural barrier to antitrust enforcement.
Weekly Roundup

Weekly Roundup: March 13

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Seven of our favorite labor scholars and lawyers on how to revive a pro-labor vision of the Constitution, Jeena Shah on how to make sense of Trump’s contradictory treatment of Hernández and Maduro, Noam Maggor on how “good” and “bad” capitalists are not born but made. Plus, a definitive ranking of the top 5,000 legal scholars, an upcoming conference. . .

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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
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