Who We Are

Since 2014, APPEAL has organized scholarly activities and educational programs encouraging new (and renewed) approaches to interrelated problems of law, economy, and politics.

We are a collaborative community of researchers and learners in the U.S. and other countries interested in the role of legal, financial, and economic institutions in shaping power globally as well as in national and local contexts. APPEAL encourages critique of economic methods and theories along with policy work toward better alternatives. We share a belief that political economic systems should be more equal, humane, ecologically sustainable, and democratic.

New & Noteworthy

What is Capitalism? Reading & Discussion Group

Friday October 25 at 3pm EDT noon Pacific; 1pm US Mountain Time, 8pm/20:00 UK Time David Ciepley will present his article Democracy and the Corporation: The Long View, Annual Review of Political Science 26:489–517 (2023). Comments by James J. Varellas, UC Berkeley. CLICK HERE TO REGISTER.

Friday November 15 at 3pm EST; noon Pacific; 8pm/20:00 UK TimeFernando Loayza Jordán will present his paper, on democracy and taxation, Contesting the Neoliberal Social Contract. Registration to open soon.

Friday December 6 at 3pm EST; noon Pacific, 8pm/20:00 UK Time Diana Reddy will present her forthcoming article, Transaction Benefits at Work: Regulating the Future of Work for the Future of Society, Columbia Law Review (2025).

Friday February 28, 2025 at 3pm EST; noon Pacific, 8pm/20:00 UK Time Kimberly Kracman will present her article (and related research), Code as Constitution: The Negotiation of a Uniform Accounting Code for U.S. Railway Corporations and the Moral Justification of Stakeholder Claims on Wealth, Critical Perspectives on Accounting, 89 doi.org/10.1016/j.cpa.2021.102376 (2022).

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NYC Workshop

Heterodox Economics Meets Law and Political Economy:

Examining Liberal Authoritarianism

Saturday *October 26, 2024 (*note date change)

9:00am – 5:00 pm ET

In person only (sorry, no remote participation capacity)

John Jay College

524 W 59th St New York, NY 10019 United States

We seek to feature multi-disciplinary and intersectional emerging scholarship that teases out the complex relationships between politics, law, and economic systems. We welcome papers both on and beyond the general workshop theme of Liberal Authoritarianism.

Students and emerging scholars interested in presenting LPE informed analysis of foreign policy, imperialism, or more broadly on the role of governance and regulation should submit a 100 – 350 word abstract with titles
by October 6 via this link

We encourage proposals and projects at every stage of their development; completed papers not necessary at time of workshop. If you are unsure if your proposal fits submission guidelines, please do not hesitate to contact appeal@politicaleconomylaw.org.

PRELIMINARY SCHEDULE

9:00am – light breakfast and informal gathering

9:30am – welcome and introductory remarks

10:00-11:00am Liberal Authoritarianism keynote

Jamee Moudud, Sarah Lawrence College

Sanjay Reddy, The New School for Social Research (comments and discussion

11:00am –12:30pm Small Group Discussions – Liberal Authoritarianism keynote, readings and current applications

12:30–1:30pm Lunch

1:30-2:45 Round 1 of Student & Emerging Scholar paper presentations

3:00-4:15 Round 2 of Student & Emerging Scholar Paper presentations

4:15-4:45 Wrap up: Reflections and Future Plans

**Registration required in advance, by Oct. 18, 2024. CLICK HERE TO REGISTER.

No charge for registration; membership in APPEAL (click here) or other co-sponsoring groups and/or donations toward workshop costs welcome, please click here

Co-organizers and sponsors:

The Association for the Promotion of Political Economy and the Law (APPEAL) and

The LPE Collective

John Jay College Economics Department, John Jay College Law and Political Economy Society

University of Massachusetts Amherst, Law and Political Economy Group

Just Published!

Martha T. McCluskey, "Association for the Promotion of Political Economy and the Law (APPEAL): Transforming Law and Economy," Journal of Law and Political Economy, volume 4, issue 1 (2023)

This article reflects on the Association for the Promotion of Political Economy and Law (APPEAL), formed in 2012 as the first contemporary scholarly group named for the emerging field of Law and Political Economy (LPE).

2023-2024 APPEAL FELLOWS

Meet our first APPEAL Fellows for 2023-2024! Awarded to two emerging scholars, the APPEAL fellows will provide supplemental conference support and mentoring to encourage new leaders in law and political economy.

Zac Hale

Zac is Senior Staff Attorney and Group Representation Specialist at Brooklyn Legal Services Corporation A (BKA), where he organizes with and advocates for groups of tenants fighting for housing justice. He is also a graduate student in economics department at CUNY’s John Jay College, where he supports movement-informed academic work as President of the John Jay Law and Political Economy Society. Zac also advocates for tenant-centered policy reform as Co-Chair of the Brooklyn Tenant Lawyers Network . He collaborated with APPEAL to organize workshops in 2022 and 2023 that highlighted critical scholarship in both law and economics. He is also a nominee for the APPEAL Board.

Reshard Kolabhai

Reshard is currently an LLM student at Yale Law School, and a former full time lecturer in Constitutional Law at North-West University in South Africa. He is researching structural economic inequality under the post-apartheid South African Constitution, focusing especially on socio-economic rights, democracy, and political economy. His experience includes coordinating a grassroots civil society response to Covid-19 in South Africa and extensive involvement in the arts. He is enthusiastic about teaching the change-makers of tomorrow.

APPEAL Emerging Scholar Steering Committee

We are also excited to announce our new committee of new and aspiring scholars! The group will provide opportunities for informal advice for building the law and political economy field, especially offering perspectives of students and recent graduates with interest in integrating heterodox and interdisciplinary approaches to economics with an understanding of law grounded in legal realist and critical theories.

Committee members:

Emily Pisano (John Jay Economics)

Alex Richwine (John Jay Economics)

Lily Ginsburg (Berkeley Law graduate)

Eleanor Morgan (Sarah Lawrence College graduate)

Zac Hale (John Jay Economics)

Oskar Dye-Furstenburg (John Jay Economics)

Lauren Johnson (New School Economics)

Leah Masci (New School Economics)