Law and Political Economy: American and European Perspectives

If “law is the cloth from which capitalism is cut,” as Katharina Pistor eloquently puts it, then courts are where laws are interpreted, and it is lawyers and judges who perform the work of interpretation. As Dukes and Streeck note in their recent book, “law is easily the most sophisticated institution in a modern society and political economy,” and therefore, it needs to be more systematically “integrated into the study of political economy.”  Without studying the evolution of laws and the courts' interpretation of them, we obtain only a limited view of how assets are created, how labor and consumer rights are established, or why wealth is distributed as it is. It is therefore somewhat surprising that, while sociologists and political scientists have extensively studied legislative actions under various administrations, their analysis of the state-economy relationship has paid less attention to the courts and judicial interpretations of law.  

Recently, there has been a growing movement led by critical legal scholars to address this research gap.  These scholars encourage us to think critically, historically, and comparatively about the relationship between law and political economy. They highlight critical historical moments when courts decisively influenced economic policies, emphasize the roles of significant legal figures in shaping the relationship between state and economy, and underscore that constitutional questions are fundamentally questions of political economy.  

In this one-day conference/workshop we will collectively explore how a systematic study of law and courts might broaden our understanding of political economy. We will discuss the promises and limits of law—how law can be grounds for progressive change ensuring protection for labor and consumers, but also how it often falls short in challenging and transforming entrenched systems of power and inequality in the absence of direct action.