Balkinization: ClassCrits Conference Call for Papers

ClassCrits Conference Call for Papers

Frank Pasquale

The ClassCrits blog has a number of interesting posts up recently. The group has announced a call for papers for a September conference; here is the notice:

ClassCrits IV, “Criminalizing Economic Inequality”

This workshop, the fourth meeting of ClassCrits, takes as its theme the criminalization of economic inequality. The dominance of “free market” economic theory and policy has been accompanied in the U.S. by increasing reliance on the criminal justice system to make and enforce economic policy. The criminal justice system is increasingly used to control persons and groups whose participation in formal markets is marginal at best. Many aspects of traditional immigration law have morphed into “crimmigration”, appropriating domestic criminal law enforcement tools and redefining whole communities of workers and their families as “illegal people.” States and municipalities have criminalized the lives of homeless people, including those who are mentally ill.

International markets in heroin, cocaine, and marijuana are the targets of a “war on drugs” fought through criminal justice (and military) methods. Criminal law is used to deter and punish sex trafficking, and the criminal justice system buttresses, or substitutes for, welfare policy. At the same time, corporate wrongdoing has been lightly punished, if at all, and the drumbeat against “government” as the enemy of the people continues unabated. In this sense, economic inequality has not been “criminalized” at all. Quite the opposite, powerful interests encourage American citizens to see economic inequality as natural and good. Criminalizing Economic Inequality will provide an opportunity for legal scholars, economists, policymakers, activists, and others to critically examine the relationship between state power and market power in upward redistribution and the continued spread of laissez-faire ideology.

Proposals are due May 6th to classcrits@gmail.com. Anyone familiar with the work of Glenn Greenwald or Matt Taibbi will find much of interest here. I hope to attend the conference and get more involved in this important group. One need only compare the treatment of one loan applicant and the total lack of prosecutions of top financial executives to see the enduring relevance of the conference themes.

X-Posted: Concurring Opinions.

Posted 1:14 PM by Frank Pasquale [link]