The Law and Political Economy (LPE) Project brings together a network of scholars, practitioners, and students working to develop innovative intellectual, pedagogical, and political interventions to advance the study of political economy and law. Our work is rooted in the insight that politics and the economy cannot be separated and that both are constructed in essential respects by law. We believe that developments over the last several decades in legal scholarship and policy helped to facilitate rising inequality and precarity, political alienation, the entrenchment of racial hierarchies and intersectional exploitation, and ecological and social catastrophe. We aim to help reverse these trends by supporting scholarly work that maps where we have gone wrong, and that develops ideas and proposals to democratize our political economy and build a more just, equal, and sustainable future.
LPE project
Learn
A variety of resources designed to help faculty and students learn more about LPE, including syllabi from LPE and LPE-related courses, primers on topics such as neoliberalism and legal realism, as well as videos from a number of events we have held over the last year.
Go to LearnEngage
Information about the amazing work being done by LPE student groups, as well as guidance on starting a student group on your own campus! A bureau of affiliated professors and practitioners designed to help faculty and students to bring LPE scholars to their campuses!
Go to EngageEvents
A compendium of upcoming (and past) events put on by the LPE Project, LPE student groups, and other organizations in the LPE ecosystem.
Go to Events
CFP: 2024 Cornell Work Law Junior Scholar Workshop
Cornell ILR School invites submissions for the Work Law Junior Scholar Workshop to be held in Ithaca, New York, on November 8-9, 2024. Participants will receive feedback on their scholarship from one of the leading scholar discussants (Matt Bodie, Veena Dubal, Hiba Hafiz, Kerry Rittich, and Noah Zatz), comments from fellow junior scholars, and advice about career development and journal…
Plantation Capitalism’s Legacy Produced the Maui Wildfires
The Maui Wildfires devastated West Maui in August 2023, killing people and destroying homes. But far from being an inevitable natural disaster, the fires are a predictable byproduct of nineteenth century plantation capitalism. That system's legacies, particularly its water management, weakened the island's ecosystem and concentrated harm on the most vulnerable people.
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 and arguments. Rejecting that tradition leaves far too much on the table.
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.