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LPE Blog

Weekly Roundup: May 3, 2024

Darryl Li on the political economy of artillery shells, and Student reflections from the encampments at Columbia, CUNY, NYU and Yale. Plus, a CfP on dollar hegemony, a collection of critical legal work on Gaza, two open letters from law faculty, and new pieces by Adam Tooze on the political economy of Columbia University, David Stein & Ira Regmi on. . .

Imperialism’s Shell Game

While every possible form of pressure should be brought to bear on the Biden administration to cut off the flow of arms to Israel, the prevailing law and policy debate tends to obscure some key aspects of how U.S. imperialism actually works. For the United States does not simply ship arms abroad, it is also the world’s leading arms trafficker, wielding enormous. . .

Weekly Roundup: April 26

Maggie Blackhawk on The Constitutional Bind, Vincent Bevins on a decade of failed protests, and Sandeep Vaheesan and Jonathan Harris on the FTC’s final rule banning non-compete clauses. Plus, new pieces from around the web by Gabriel Winant, Laleh Khalili, Cynthia Estlund & Alan Bogg, Meena Jagannath & Nikki Thanos, Michael Fakhri. . .

On Garrison, Douglass, and American Colonialism

In aiming to unsettle the dominant constitutional faith to forge a wholly different constitutional future, The Constitutional Bind sets its sights breathtakingly high. Whether the book reaches those heights will likely turn on whether it offers a viable path from our creedal constitutional present to such a utopian future.

Weekly Roundup: April 18

Aziz Rana and Willy Forbath kick off a symposium on the The Constitutional Bind, and Uʻilani Tanigawa Lum and Kaulu Luʻuwai discuss the disastrous effects of plantation capitalism in Maui. Plus, a cool job with the Health and Political Economy Project, a CFP for junior work law scholars, and several new LPE-relevant papers, interviews, and articles. . .

Constitutional Politics and Dilemmas on the Left

Aziz Rana aims to free us from Constitution worship. An abiding faith in “redemptive” constitutionalism, his new book argues, has long held back liberals, progressives, and even the Left from seriously promoting major change in our structures of government. Yet key left figures and movements have always made canny use of redemptive constitutional narratives. . .

Toward a New Constitutional Politics

Given the manifest flaws of the U.S. Constitution, how did Americans come to idolize this document? Aziz Rana kicks off a symposium on his new book, The Constitutional Bind, by reflecting on the path that led to our current political predicament, and how long-buried Left thinking about state and economy might help us find our way out of it.

Weekly Roundup: April 12

We offer our biannual round-up of forthcoming LPE and LPE-adjacent scholarship, while Premal Dharia concludes our symposium on Radical Acts of Justice. Plus, the fourth session of our Courts series with Amy Kapczynski and Ganesh Sitaraman; a special issue of Law & Contemporary Problems with work by David Grewal, Christine Desan, and others; an. . .

A Crisis of Purpose in Public Defense

That public defense is in a state of crisis is far from controversial. Crushing caseloads and rampant underfunding have created untenable working conditions under which even the most well-meaning defenders often struggle to effectively represent their clients. And yet, Jocelyn Simonson, in her important new book Radical Acts of Justice, identifies a. . .

Weekly Roundup: April 5

Mila Versteeg, Kevin Cope, and Gaurav Mukherjee on the right to sleep under bridges, Luke Messac on how the IRS could reduce medical debt, and Elizabeth Dale on the history of popular police power. Plus, the fourth session of our Courts series with Amy Kapczynski and Ganesh Sitaraman, a TWAIL conference on non-western Imperialisms, an upcoming event on. . .