Law and Political Economy in Germany

DEBATE

The Law and Political Economy discourse has attracted widespread attention in US legal academia. Drawing from the conference „Law and Political Economy in Germany“ in June in Berlin, this blog symposium dives into a dialogue between the Law and Political Economy Discourse and German legal thinking. Convened by Andreas Engert, Eva Herzog, Anna-Bettina Kaiser, Bertram Lomfeld and Silvia von Steinsdorff, the symposium is supported by „The Laws of Social Cohesion“ and its collaborators.

12 October 2024

Victoria Guijarro Santos

Uber knows. Do you?

Law shapes and is shaped by the contemporary, dominant economic system. This contribution illustrates this finding by the case of Uber.

11 October 2024

Maximilian Petras

Privatisierung für wen?

Nahezu jeder Beitrag zum Symposium zeigt, dass ein Theorie-Import der LPE-Positionen aus Yale nicht bruchlos möglich ist. Zugleich gibt es gerade in Europa Forschungsprojekte zu Recht und politischer Ökonomie gibt, die sowohl theoretisch fundiert als auch eingebettet in eine konkretisierende Praxis arbeiten. Mit ihnen können wichtige gesellschaftliche Infrastrukturen stabil, klimaschonend und innovativ umgestaltet werden.

Maximilian Petras

Privatization for whom?

Almost every contribution to the symposium shows that it is not possible to import LPE positions from the US without friction. At the same time, an LPE Europe research agenda exists that is theoretically sound and embedded in a concretising practice. This could be used to reorganise important social infrastructures in a stable, climate-friendly and innovative way.

10 October 2024

Alexander Hellgardt

The Role of Private Law in Times of Polycrisis

Crises are a good test case, not only to check the practical performance of the law, but also to gain conceptual clarity about the possibilities of (certain areas of) the law. This post compares a German regulatory approach to private law with the US Law and Political Economy movement.

Marvin Reiff

Steward Ownership, Wealth Inequality, and LPE

Among the many crises challenging our societies is the inequality crisis. The central role of law in creating and addressing this crisis is not sufficiently recognized. What do “Steward Ownership” and “Law and Political Economy” might have to offer in this regard?

09 October 2024

Anna-Julia Saiger

And, of course, Climate Change

Scholarly debates on climate change law in general and climate change litigation more specifically and the recent LPE debates mutually enrich each other. Surprisingly, the interaction of those two fields of study – while evoked frequently – remains underdeveloped.

Bettina Rentsch

Fanfictioning Critical Theory

To redeem its commitment to an ‘emancipatory critique’, LPE would do good by supporting itself with a theory of science, or at least an epistemic program. While the critical tradition has raised powerful normative desires, it first and foremost stands for an alternative model of scientific reasoning. LPE, as will be shown, updates much of critical theory’s historical normative claims. Yet, at least from my readings, it appears to be missing out on a theory of science.

08 October 2024

Emma Sammet

Normalization of the Housing Market

Law and Political Economy sharpens our understanding of how law came into being and how economic thought has shaped legal reality. Applied to housing, it uncovers the path dependencies of marketization and allows to question their background assumptions.

Andreas Kerkemeyer

Different Jurisdiction, Same Problems?

The relationship of Economics and Law is long, contested, and entangled. Law and Political Economy, a group of legal scholars that are mostly working at universities in the United States, offers yet another perspective on this relationship. LPE may be described as an attempt to analyse, criticise and shape Law and legal scholarship to contribute to a more democratic and more egalitarian society. How this concept translates to the german and european legal debate is examined in this blog post. What can LPE bring to the table?

07 October 2024

Dominik Rennert

How Germany’s Trajectory Differs from LPE’s Diagnosis for the US, and Where Germany’s Problems Lie

LPE’s diagnosis for the US situation does not map neatly on Germany’s political, constitutional and economic model and its trajectory. This does not mean, however, that the German model faces no problems; but these problems take a different shape and require distinct answers.

Eva Herzog

Leaping the Atlantic?

Eva Herzog opens the blog symposium by introducing the US-American LPE movement’s main thesis. She calls for thorough contextualization in German and European economic, social and cultural history.

Thomas Wischmeyer

Constitutionalizing the Political Economy?

Is constitutionalization a process that Law and Political Economy should strive for? So far, this debate has mainly been conducted in the US context. There, promoting a version of popular constitutionalism based on an egalitarian economic vision is clearly an “uphill battle.” But what about Europe and Germany? Is constitutionalism here a way of transforming LPE’s critical perspective into a positive agenda?

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