How Law Works is a blog project by PILnet: The Global Network for Public Interest Law. This blog is a resource for lawyers, students, non-profits, and interested members of civil society to learn more about how transactional and corporate law can be used to serve the public interest. A reconceptualization of what public interest lawyering means is sorely necessary in our rapidly changing legal, political and economic landscape. This blog presents new visions of what lawyering in the public interest can be, highlighting how corporate law tools and innovative technologies can be adapted to serve the most vulnerable in our societies.
While law has historically been a form of power monopolized by the state, today an increasing amount of that power is held by the private sector. Corporations have developed sophisticated law practices, providing themselves with finely tuned guidance to protect their profits and interests. This project provides concrete examples of how these transactional law tools can be repurposed to serve the public, rather than private, interest.
The traditional model of public interest law has shied away from appropriating these tools. Public interest lawyers have, throughout history, won great victories by utilizing what we understand as ‘traditional’ public interest law: strategic or impact litigation. But as the hold of market-based logic and the prevalence of industries which move so fast as to be in effect largely unregulated grows, a predominant focus on litigation can leave other avenues for action unexplored. Without a thorough understanding of how the private sector is using law, almost always outside of the courtroom, to mitigate risks and protect their own interests, public interest advocates today may struggle to confront the power generated by these same legal tools.
We believe that transactional and commercial law tools can have the same protective and preventive functions for the public interest as for private corporations. At the heart of this project is a motivation to make civil society and those who work in the public interest better consumers of law and legal advice. This project shares the insights of lawyers, pro bono professionals, academics and civil society in order to expand the definition of what we know to be public interest lawyering, making sure law truly works for all.