Law After Neoliberalism

This interdisciplinary course will examine the impact of neoliberalism on contemporary legal thought and practice. Neoliberalism refers to a body of ideas regarding the relationship between capitalism and democracy. Neoliberal theory holds that in a capitalist democracy markets rather than the state should serve as the preferred medium for resolving problems of political economy. Some of its proponents maintain more broadly that neoliberal market rationality provides a model and a mode of governance which can and ought to be extended beyond the economy into non-economic and non-market domains of public and private life. Focusing on cases, statutes, regulations and other materials, class discussions will explore the neoliberalization of contemporary law across a number of fields. These include, among others, contracts, torts, civil procedure, administrative law, criminal law and criminology, constitutional law, health law, anti-discrimination law, intellectual property and family law. In addition to issues of substantive law, the course will consider the uses of neoliberal theory as an organizing framework for understanding and addressing contemporary problems in legal sociology, legal education, law and the professions.