Joined by the insight that the "the economy" cannot be separated from questions of power, distribution, and democracy, a growing group of legal scholars has begun to center questions of law and political economy ("LPE") as part of a critical transformation in legal thought. ACS is pleased to join with the LPE Project in hosting an online course introducing students to LPE analysis. LPE frameworks highlight law's role in the perpetuation of racial and gender injustice, the devaluation of social and ecological reproduction, and the violence of the carceral state under capitalism, and to explore concrete legal reforms designed to move beyond neoliberalism and toward a genuinely responsive, egalitarian democracy, with critical attention to the need for power and movement-building as part of any such transformation.
Law students often experience a divide in their education between "business" courses and "social justice" courses. From an LPE perspective, this divide is the pedagogical reflection of a much deeper divide in legal discourse between the state and the economy -- a divide that is both artificial and harmful, given the range of today's wicked problems. This talk uses the example of climate change as a problem that both spans the curricular divide, and exposes the weakness of viewing "the economy" as pre-political.
Suggested Readings:
Where is Race in Law & Political Economy? The App and the Operating System Introduction to the new Journal of Law & Political Economy
Featuring:
Angela P. Harris, Distinguished Professor of Law, UC Davis School of Law
With Commentary from:
K. Sabeel Rahman, Associate Professor of Law, Brooklyn Law School; President, Demos; Faculty Co-Director, Law and Political Economy Project
Ganesh Sitaraman, Professor of Law, ACS Faculty Advisor, and Director of the Program in Law and Government, Vanderbilt Law School; Member, ACS Board of Directors and Board of Academic Advisors.
