2nd YSI FLE Summer Academy – Law and Money: From Past to Future

A particular set of ideas about law, money, and society dominated the last half century of global governance – in a nutshell, that the world was far too complex for coordinated democratic decision-making and should best be left to ‘the market’. This carried far reaching theoretical assumptions and policy implications: for instance, money is apolitical, democratic values are procedural not substantive, law is largely instrumentalist, and society reflects an infinitely complex range of consumer interests. These ideas permeated expert thinking across the political spectrum – what we might call, the post-Cold War ‘mainstream’ which effectively kept fundamental issues of monetary and fiscal policy largely absent in public discussion.

The global crisis and its aftermath in the last decade have disrupted the mainstream and led to new thinking and insights into the dynamics of law, money, and society: how they function, how they relate to one another, the possibilities of future policy options, and even how we might reimagine our understanding of core democratic values such as freedom and security. (On) July 2019, the second edition of the FLE Summer Academy aims to bring together graduate students, young professionals, senior academics, and policy makers to collaboratively 1) develop a deeper understanding of the intersection of law and money, and rethink the democratic possibilities of future policy making; and 2) nurture a diverse community of friends, colleagues, and mentors for future learning and support in their professional trajectories.