Thread by @LPE_Project

🎙️Mic check, mic check! 🎙️

Our first #LPE101 event begins in T minus 3!!!

The live-tweeter has logged on. ⌨️

lpeproject.org/events/lpe-pro…

Thanks to everyone who made this happen! As Peggy Li (@acslaw) kindly points out, please feel free to submit questions via the Zoom Q&A function.

@akapczynski: We are launching a whole series over the coming weeks. This is the kick-off: "What is #LPE? How does it help us move beyond neoliberalism and make our democracy more real? Especially for the most vulnerable in society?"

lpeproject.org/events/lpe-pro…

#LPE101

@akapczynski: There are many of us building LPE *together.* I became part of the team challenging mainstream legal thought (the "20th century synthesis"), by assessing health justice and IP. #LPE101

@akapczynski: The cost of insulin went up over 400% in the last decade with no changes to the substance of the drugs. How is this acceptable in the richest country in the world? These questions are even more pertinent given COVID-19... #LPE101

@akapczynski: But there are countless paths by which people come to LPE...the world is literally burning & we are trying to connect the relevant crises (racial & gender injustice, the devaluation of social & ecological reproduction, & the violence of the carceral state..)
#LPE101

@akapczynski: We do not believe in the purported separation between "politics" and "the economy." We think we can have a more democratic and just society, building on the work many people have been doing for years in various traditions. #LPE101

@akapczynski: What does mainstream legal thought (what we call the "20th century synthesis") have to do with our current crisies? For one, it organizes our thoughts, especially concerning private law, around questions of "efficiency" and "wealth maximization." #LPE101

@akapczynski: For instance, we discuss property law without talking about conquest and the manner by which certain people actually gain title in the first place. In contract law, we sideline questions of power and coercion to focus on other (market-based) concerns. #LPE101

@akapczynski: Most of these discussions are fundamentally neoliberal in character. Investigations of power and coercion that do exist in public law seem to stop where the market beings. #LPE101

(#tbt: lpeproject.org/blog/law-neoli…)

@akapczynski: The very idea that politics itself is a market permeates First Amendment doctrine! #LPE101

@akapczynski: What does neoliberalism propose? Mostly "leaving markets alone." Think Thatcher & Reagan. But there is a richer intellectual history. Check out @LPEblog for suggested reading! #LPE101

@akapczynski: But neoliberalism is not so much a de-regulatory agenda as a "re-regulatory agenda" in favor of certain parties. State power is actually built OUT in the neoliberal era, on an international level. #LPE101

@akapczynski: At the same time, neoliberalism puts aside certain spheres of society, like carework and incarceration, and considers them separate from the broader economy. #LPE101

@akapczynski: In the neoliberal era, Law & Economics takes off. This approach models people as rational market actors and encourages us to search for "efficiency." This usually means..."wealth maximization." #LPE101

@akapczynski: Neoliberalism also puts questions of *distribution* aside. It suggests distribution occurs after -- or separate from -- the market. This means it ignores key questions about power. #LPE101

@akapczynski recommends this book! #LPE101

press.princeton.edu/books/paperbac…

@akapczynski: Part of what we're saying in #LPE is that markets aren't natural. As legal realists and thinkers in other traditions have argued, there is no such thing as a market that operates based on its own rules. There is no such thing as neutrality! #LPE101

@akapczynski: We're also saying power matters! Power afforded to certain people (or firms) allows them to shape outcomes further down the road. If we want democracy or equality we actually have to build it into the law! #LPE101

@akapczynski: We have to actually think about how to design rules to give power to those who do not have it. What are the best "non-reformist reforms"? #LPE101

@akapczynski: Legal thinkers who champion democracy must move away from "anti-politics" and toward a new approach. #LPE101

@GaneshSitaraman: First question from the Q&A - one argument made in favor of capitalism: markets generate a special "wisdom of the crowds." How does LPE respond to this? #LPE101

@akapczynski: There's something really appealing about Hayek's theories about information. But what info do markets provide? They determine "social value" via their own mechanisms and criteria...

...but legal entitlements decide who has wealth in the first place and many decisions flow downstream from there! #LPE101

@ksabeelrahman: From the Q&A...what does it look like to think about concretely redesigning institutions according to an LPE framework? #LPE101

@akapczynski: This is inseparable from the question of how social value is constructed. How do we bring in more egalitarian ways of measuring things? One common move is to shift power from private to public institutions to address tough questions with different criteria. #LPE101

@GaneshSitaraman: next Q - how do we think about democracy when governments are captured by private actors (or more broadly, non-democratic actors)? #LPE101

@ksabeelrahman: Here, I go back to @akapczynski's points about legal construction. For instance, we have a whole set of constraints that influence how social movements can even act in the first place? How do we reassess these constraints? #LPE101

@akapczynski: Of course, elite lawyers are only one piece of this puzzle. We don't believe most of these problems are going to be addressed in a technocratic fashion. We have to work with movements and welcome you all to join us! #LPE101

@GaneshSitaraman: Thanks to everyone who joined today! And please register for the next two events in the series!

10/22 – Intro to Law & Political Economy II w/ Angela Harris

11/18 – An LPE Approach to Constitutional Law w. @JedediahSPurdy

#LPE101

lpeproject.org/events/lpe-pro…