Law Students for a Democratic Society (LSDS) is a group of students at Penn Law that advances a program of critical inquiry and political dissent in response to the entrenchment of racism, economic exploitation, and other anti-democratic elements of the American legal system. We cultivate politically conscious lawyering through a legal and intellectual framework that supplants obsession with economic efficiency with nuanced analysis of power, justice, and opportunity. We are Penn’s affiliate of the Law and Political Economy Project.
LSDS has two major annual projects. First, we organize “Disrupting Doctrine,” a speaker series offering critical perspectives on classes in Penn Law’s first-year curriculum: Contracts, Torts, Civil Procedure, Constitutional Law, and Criminal Law. Second, we host “Legal Praxis Skills,” a student run seminar that situates our legal training in the context of struggles for social, racial, and economic justice with readings in critical legal studies, critical race theory, and law & political economy.
To get involved, please email lsds.pennlaw@gmail.com
