2025 Law Review Symposium: Law & Economics vs. Law & Political Economy: A Debate

4/18
Add to Calendar 2025-04-18 09:00:00 2025-04-18 15:30:00 2025 Law Review Symposium: Law & Economics vs. Law & Political Economy: A Debate Event details: https://www.law.uchicago.edu/events/2025LawReviewSymposium - University of Chicago Law School blog@law.uchicago.edu America/Chicago public
Room V
1111 East 60th Street, Chicago, Illinois 60637
Open to the public

This year’s Symposium brings together scholars from the Law & Economics and the Law & Political Economy branches of the legal academy to examine how modern legal research diagnoses law's contribution to inequality and racial injustice. Despite deep disagreements between the two schools, there has been very little direct dialogue to clarify the sources of conflict and explore common ground. Panelists from across the country will present papers aiming to define the distinct methodological perspectives that the Law & Economics and Law & Political Economy movements provide; discuss applications of these perspectives to market regulation, property, and criminal law; and address theories of social and political change. Please join us to explore how these two schools collide, cooperate, and shape debate in contemporary legal academia.

Schedule of Events

  • Friday, April 18. 2025
    • Breakfast
      • -
    • Opening Remarks
      • -
        • Dean Thomas J. Miles
        • Helen Zhao (University of Chicago Law Review)
    • PANEL #1: What Is Distinctive About LPE and L&E?
      • -
        • Markets and Democracy, Revisited
          by Jedediah Purdy
          ​​​​​​​
        • Expanding Sources of Knowledge in Legal Scholarship
          by Jocelyn Simonson & Adam Davidson
           
        • Contemporary Law and Economics
          by Adam Chilton, Josh Macey, and Mila Versteeg

           
        • The Law and Political Economy Critique of Law and Economics
          by Sarath Sanga
    • Break
      • -
    • PANEL #2: Markets & Inequality
      • -
        • Prices and the Self-Coordinating Market
          by Sanjukta Paul
           
        • Intellectual Property
          by Amy Kapzysncki
           
        • Economics or Populism: The Battle for the Future of Antitrust
          by Erik Hovenkamp
           
        • When Should the Legal System Help Redistribute Income?
          by Jacob Goldin & Zach Liscow
    • Lunch
      • -
    • PANEL #3: Applying the Different Approaches of LPE and L&E
      • -
        • Living Under Contract: An LPE Analysis of American Democracy
          by Amy Cohen
           
        • The Law and Political Economy Movement’s Crime Agenda Hurts Black People
          by Jonathan Klick
           
        • Some Things Are Actually Nails: The Value of Randomized Experiments Across Legal Theories
          by Hajin Kim, Kristin Underhill, and Kevin Tobia
    • Closing Remarks