About

About The [F]law

History

The [F]law is the product of the Systemic Justice Project and Harvard Law School students concerned about the harms caused by corporate interests and the law’s role in empowering corporations. With Professor Jon Hanson as Editor-in-Chief and Director, students in the Critical Corporate Theory Lab during the 2021 – 2022 academic year imagined, designed, created, and launched The [F]law. Since then students in the Lab have continued to serve as editors and contributors to the online magazine.

Mission

The [F]law’s primary mission is to share stories that reveal how corporate law and power create social problems and systemic injustices. We publish pieces that identify how corporate power has infiltrated social and political institutions, analyze how it controls them, and propose methods for dismantling corporate control & building collective power.

In addition, The [F]law also serves as an alternative to the mainstream (corporate-dominated) media approach of highlighting spectacle and policy symptoms rather than the deeper dynamics and common roots of systemic problems. Further, it offers the students who participate in the Critical Corporate Theory Lab an opportunity to better understand the powerful role of the media in shaping laws and policies and a chance to expand their own storytelling and institution-building skills.

Acknowledgements

The [F]law has benefitted tremendously from the generosity of a collection of journalists, writers, and lawyers who have shared their experience and wisdom with the Lab. They include Emily Baumgaertner, Vanessa A. Bee, Shannon Brownlee, Briahna Joy Gray, Ryan Grim, Rhiannon Hamam, Brian Kaiser, Jodi Kantor, Alec Karakatsanis, Jeanne Lenzer, Michael Liroff, Bethany McLean, Ralph Nader, Oren Nimni, Josie Duffy Rice, Sam Rosen, Peter Shamshiri, Mark Joseph Stern, Patricia Wen, and Jay Willis. Special thanks, too, to our Executive Technical Editor, Reya Singh and our Executive Managing Editor, Jess Graham.

Authors and Audience

The [F]law is intended to be accessible to the general public–you shouldn’t need an advanced degree to be able to read it–and we publish a range of short- and long-form pieces that fall within our mission statement. We’re interested in case studies of local organizing efforts, narrative journalism, and accessible theoretical explorations of how corporate power functions in relation to our social and political institutions.

Content

We publish features in the style of long-form journalism (usually 4,000+ words) and columns, interviews, opinion pieces, and visual art. We have two podcasts: The [F]law Podcast and [F]law School (coming in September of 2024).

Please send questions or submissions to justice@law.harvard.edu. If you are interested in submitting something for publication, contact us at justice@law.harvard.edu. In your email, please include your name, pronouns, institutional affiliation (if any), and a brief synopsis/abstract of the piece that you are submitting.

Disclaimer: Much of the content for The [F]law is created by students who have reported and written on a topic of their choosing related to the magazine’s mission. The views and opinions expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of the magazine or its board or editors.

Speaking as an Organization

The Critical Corporate Theory Lab may from time to speak as an organization (e.g., co-signing letters; making a statement). That will occur typically by anonymous supermajority vote on the part of current members of the Critical Corporate Theory Lab.