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
What’s Value in Health Care? Powerful Companies Make It Hard To...
Powerful health care companies shape the informational environments around their products. As part of this playbook, companies avoid or thwart the generation and dissemination of accurate information on the true value of their products. Consequently, Americans spend too much on health care with dubious or even negative value.
Solidarity during the Second Red Scare: The Lessons of Thomas Emerson
Thomas Emerson is often remembered as a leading scholar of the First Amendment, but his deeper legacy lies in his defiant stand against political repression during the Second Red Scare. Looking back on his life, we can see valuable lessons about how to navigate the treacherous waters of political persecution and rising authoritarianism.
CFP: Inaugural Association of Law and Political Economy Conference
A forthcoming conference will launch The Association of Law and Political Economy (ALPE): a membership organization with a regular annual conference, elected leadership, and an architecture for open participation and collaboration that can grow to meet the need and enthusiasm for LPE work today.
The Same Script: Value-Based Payment, Managed Care, and Neoliberalism
Though heralded as a policy innovation, value-based payment has not succeeded in lowering costs and has instead fueled corporate consolidation, as many physicians are ill-equipped to assume the financial risk that the payment model requires. Embodying the core tenets of neoliberalism, VBP is ultimately a failure of policymakers to equitably and efficiently administer a public health care program.