Capital's Offense: Law's Entrenchment of Inequality

23 Pages Posted: 8 Nov 2014

See all articles by Frank Pasquale

Frank Pasquale

Cornell Law School; Cornell Tech

Date Written: October 1, 2014

Abstract

Piketty’s Capital in the Twenty-First Century is a rare scholarly achievement. It weaves together description and prescription, facts and values, economics, politics, and history, with an assured and graceful touch. So clear is Piketty’s reasoning, and so compelling the enormous data apparatus he brings to bear, that few can doubt he has fundamentally altered our appreciation of the scope, duration, and intensity of inequality. This review explains Piketty’s analysis and its relevance to law and social theory, drawing lessons for the re-emerging field of political economy.

The university enables interdisciplinary work, and political economy is an ideally hybrid discursive space for this process of mutual inspiration and correction. Lawyers are particularly well-suited to the task of studying political economy, because we are the ones drafting, interpreting, and applying the rules governing the interface between state actors and firms. Integrating the long-divided fields of politics and economics, a renewal of modern political economy could unravel problems inadequately addressed by narrower specializations. Piketty’s work shows how inquiries in both law and political economy will be enriched by their interaction.

Keywords: political economy, inequality, stratification, redistribution, tax, tax evasion, tax havens, social science, philosophy of social science, economics, law and economics, Piketty, capital, capitalism, industrial policy, merit, desert, egalitarianism, social justice, finance

Suggested Citation

Pasquale, Frank A., Capital's Offense: Law's Entrenchment of Inequality (October 1, 2014). Boundary 2 Review, October 2014, U of Maryland Legal Studies Research Paper No. 2014-43, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2520251

Frank A. Pasquale (Contact Author)

Cornell Law School ( email )

Myron Taylor Hall
Ithaca, NY 14853

Cornell Tech ( email )

111 8th Avenue #302
New York, NY 10011
United States

Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?

Paper statistics

Downloads
95
Abstract Views
909
Rank
499,092
PlumX Metrics