The Law of Political Economy: Transformation in the Function of Law

This book develops the law of political economy as a new field of scholarly enquiry. Bringing together an exceptional group of scholars, it provides a novel conceptual framework for studying the role of law and legal instruments in political economy contexts, with a focus on historical transformations and central challenges in both European and global contexts. Its chapters reconstruct how the law of political economy plays out in diverse but central fields, ranging from competition and consumer protection law to labour and environmental law, giving a comprehensive overview of the central challenges of the law of political economy. It also provides a sophisticated and multifaceted framework for further enquires while outlining the contours of new law of political economy.

Table of Contents:
1. The law of political economy: an introduction Poul F. Kjaer; Part I. Studying the Law of Political Economy: 2. The legal proprium of the economic constitution Christian Joerges and Michelle Everson; 3. The myth of democratic governance Emilios Christodoulidis; 4. A political economy of contemporary legality Duncan Kennedy; Part II. Transformations of the Law of the Globalising Economy: 5. Law in global political economy: now you see it, now you don't David Kennedy; 6. Law of natural resource extraction and money as key to understanding global political economy and potential for its transformation Isabel Feichtner; 7. 'Social nature': political economy, science, and the law in the Anthropocene Jaye Ellis; Part III. The Transformation of the Law of Political Economy in Europe: 8. The transformative politics of European private law Hans-W. Micklitz; 9. Socio-economic imaginaries and European private law Marija Bartl; 10. The transformative socio-economic effects of EU competition law: from producerism to consumerism Jotte Mulder; 11. On the vanishing functional autonomy of European labour law (and some dangerous counter-movements) Stefano Giubboni; Part IV. Towards a New Law of Political Economy: 12. The future of law –'serial law'? Karl-Heinz Ladeur; 13. After governance? The idea of a private administrative law Rodrigo Vallejo; 14. The transnational dimension of constitutional rights: framing and taming 'private' governance beyond the state Lars Viellechner; 15. Counter-rights: on the trans-subjective potential of subjective rights Gunther Tuebner.

About the Author :
Poul F. Kjaer is Professor of Governance and Sociology of Law, Department of Management, Politics and Philosophy, Copenhagen Business School, Denmark. His previous books includes Between Governing and Governance: On the Emergence, Function and Form of Europe's Post-national Constellation (2010) and Constitutionalism in the Global Realm: A Sociological Approach (2016).

Review :
'What emerges from the contributions is that political economy not only involves the economy in its narrow sense and the institutional political field but also extends to our view of the social and ecological worlds and the central role played by law in these contexts.' Horatia Muir Watt, Revue Critique de Droit International Privé 'By exploring some of the regulatory challenges of the globalizing economy from interdisciplinary, albeit mainly European perspectives, the [book] can inspire American and European academics and practitioners in elaborating common responses to the regulatory challenges of authoritarian power politics and multilevel governance of global public goods in the rapidly changing context of climate change, global health pandemics, and obvious governance failures.' Ernst-Ulrich Petersmann, The Journal of International Economic Law '… this collection provides a valuable foundation for understanding law and political economy.' S. Prisco III, Choice 'Although scholars on both left and right often view law as only an epiphenomenon of political economy, this dynamic and multifaceted collection of essays persuasively suggests the opposite: law and political economy mutually constitute each other. Law therefore inevitably reflects, reinforces, restrains, reproduces and resists the driving forces of political economy. Illuminating and consistently provocative, The Law of Political Economy is a groundbreaking volume that complicates our understanding of both law and economics amidst the political turmoil and transformation of the early twenty-first century.' Paul Schiff Berman, Walter S. Cox Professor of Law, George Washington University 'A brilliant collection including contributions from leading international scholars that together offer extended critical engagement with key concepts: governance, democratic participation, legality, rights. It is bound to become an important point of reference in ongoing debates on both sides of the Atlantic concerning law and political economy in the twenty-first century.' Ruth Dukes, University of Glasgow