Intro to Law & Political Economy I

Join ACS and the Law & Political Economy Project for a Series on "Law & Political Economy 101"
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.

We live in an age of rising inequality, deep racialized and gendered injustice, hollowed out democracy, and climate catastrophe. Is legal thought today adequate to these challenges – and if not, how must it change? Many come into law school eager to learn how the law can be deployed to serve the ends of justice – but end up learning instead why and how the law should advance efficiency, or how and why public law cannot interfere with deep structural inequalities. Why is law school – and especially the first year – so alienating?

Suggested Readings:
Toward a Manifesto
Coronavirus and the Politics of Care
Building the Law & Political Economy Framework: Beyond the 20th-Century Synthesis

Featuring:
Amy Kapczynski, Professor of Law, Faculty Co-Director of the Global Health Justice Partnership, and Faculty Co-Director of the Collaboration for Research Integrity and Transparency, Yale Law School; Faculty Co-Director, Law and Political Economy Project; cofounder, Law and Political Economy blog.

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.