Rachel Lopez

Ethics & Independence In Trump’s War on Big Law — California Law Review In his second term, President Donald Trump has launched an unprecedented assault on the nation’s largest law firms. Through a series of executive orders and highly unusual EEOC (Equal Employment Oppor...

🚨🪶⚖️ @elisebmaizel.bsky.social and I just came out with a new essay on Trump's assault on Big Law. Available in the California Law Review Online here: www.californialawreview.org/online/trump... [1/5]

The phenomenon of weaponized interdependence, as defined by political scientists Henry Farrell and Abraham Newman, is a powerful tool for understanding today's global economic conflicts. But to date its uptake in the legal literature (including by this author) has been largely superficial, limited to the observation that economic interdependence coming under increased strain from the growing use of sanctions, export controls, investment screening, and similar measures. The real epistemic power of weaponized interdependence is to make political science nimble—able to identify and analyze similar dynamics across seemingly unconnected issue areas—remains largely untapped. This essay sketches an approach for developing a jurisprudence of weaponized interdependence, focusing on what Farrell and Newman term the "panopticon effect." It identifies four legal processes—herding, enclosure, legibility, and jurisdictional politics—which create the conditions for weaponizing a network. The essay develops an account of these four processes by reopening the case study of the SWIFT financial messaging system, which also figures prominently in Farrell and Newman's own work. The history of the SWIFT network, this essay argues, shows how law—defined broadly and understood across many sites of lawmaking—intervenes at critical points to create the conditions for weaponization. In developing this account, this essay also serves as a proof of concept for a broader jurisprudence of weaponized interdependence, which could make lawyers similarly nimble in confronting the manifold challenges of a politicized global economy in times of rapid technological change and rising authoritarianism.

New paper! This essay takes a step toward developing what I call a "jurisprudence of weaponized interdependence.: Building on @himself.bsky.social & @abenewman.bsky.social's groundbreaking work, I develop an account of the legal processes that facilitate the weaponization of networks. 1/x

Rare aerial imagery shows displacement and destruction in Gaza Airdrop flights offered a vantage over the closed-off Gaza Strip.

Rare aerial imagery shows displacement and destruction in Gaza www.washingtonpost.com/world/intera...

The “deal” that Brown made with the Trump admin is much more extreme than is being reported. It includes government oversight of course evaluations and no barrier to government interference in faculty hiring.

Read it for yourself here:

www.brown.edu/sites/defaul...

Time Has Run Out: Mass Starvation in Gaza and the Global Imperative It is time for comprehensive, full-spectrum, sustainable, and coordinated humanitarian action. States globally must act without delay on that imperative.

Devastating account of
-the irredeemability of Western govs' responses to 🇮🇱's starvation of #Gaza
-our collective moral failure
-applicable legal obligations right NOW

by the foremost experts on starvation Alex deWaal &
@tomdannenbaum.bsky.social

justsecurity.org/117962/mass-...

“Thirst as a weapon”: UN experts condemn Israel’s deliberate dehydration and starvation of the Palestinian people GENEVA  – UN experts* today expressed alarm at Israel’s deliberate withholding of access to safe drinking water from Palestinians in Gaza, calling it a serious violation of international law and a cri...

"Israel is using thirst as a weapon to kill Palestinians. Cutting off water is a silent, lethal bomb that kills mostly children and babies": UN experts say Israel depriving Palestinians of safe drinking water violates international law and is a crime against humanity. www.ohchr.org/en/press-rel...

Journal Article Challenges and Opportunities for Transnational Advocacy Open Access Nina Hall , Nina Reiners , Soumita Basu , Suparna Chaudhry , Laura Henry , Peace A Medie , Lisa Mcintosh Sundstrom , Andrea Vilán , Kelebogile Zvobgo International Studies Review, Volume 27, Issue 3, September 2025, viaf015, https://doi.org/10.1093/isr/viaf015

✨ Our forum “Challenges and Opportunities for Transnational Advocacy” is out #openaccess in International Studies Review ✨

👓: academic.oup.com/isr/article/...

@ninahall.bsky.social

Not just that but also acculturates them to a win takes all mindset undermining their ability to dialogue across different and in the worst case leading to lawyers facilitating democratic backsliding (eg Jan 6th & Watergate)

I argue for a different way forward here:
papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

Thank you!! I’m really trying to step back and appreciate how far we’ve come, which is hard to do given the state of our world! It helps when others share in the joy of the moment!

Because with this milestone also comes new questions:
✅ What does it mean for PLS to enter the academic mainstream?
✅ How do we avoid reproducing the same extractive dynamics we aim to resist?
✅ And most urgently, how do we sustain this work inside institutions that were never built to hold it?

Together with my long-time PLS co-author Terrell, I had the honor of writing the foreword to RLSC’s first PLS volume. In it, we reflect on what this moment means—and why it matters.

📚 Read it here:

👉 socialchangenyu.com/review/forew...

When my co-authors, two men who were sentenced to life without parole decades ago, and I published our first PLS piece, many questioned whether it even qualified as scholarship. To now see one of the top U.S. specialty law journals center PLS in its editorial mission is nothing short of remarkable.

It brings me great joy to share a major milestone for Participatory Law Scholarship (PLS):

🔥 The NYU Review of Law & Social Change (RLSC) has committed to publishing a PLS article in every volume going forward, and appointing dedicated PLS editors to support that vision.

The ICJ is a legendarily conservative legal body. Drawing on @drnajimagi.bsky.social 's live mega-thread last night hear are a few of the jaw-dropping moments for me in the Climate Change Advisory Opinion.

1. Licensing of new fossil fuel projects may be wrongful & expose states to int'l litigation

So good to see you too, friend!

Love the framing of resistance summer school!

Moving the Population in Gaza is a Manifest War Crime We wrote this essay to fulfill our human, conscientious, and civic duty, as Israelis – and as Zionists – who have expertise in areas related to the IDF’s order.

“The order to “move a population” issued by Israel does not meet any of these conditions, making the operation a war crime”
Eyal Benvenisti [one of Israel’s most renowned international law experts, member of Israel‘s legal team in the genocide case] and Chaim Gans [prof emeritus Tel Aviv university]

Columbia cancelled my course on race and media. But I’m teaching it to the people anyway.

Next Monday, July 14th is the first lecture of Race, Media and International Affairs 101, my independent course for @resistanceschool.bsky.social!

Sold out course! 500+ students enrolled.

We move! ✊🏾

Pleased to announce that effective August 16, 2025, I have been awarded tenure and promotion to Associate Professor of Law at the University of South Carolina Joseph F. Rice School of Law. Thank you to the many friends, family, mentors, and colleagues who have supported me along this path.

Love to see this! So well deserved!! Congratulations!!

Awwww I love that!

Legal writing question of the day: Occasionally students ask me where to look to see examples of great briefs beyond those I've already provided. One of my standard answers is to point them to DOJ briefs. That. . . no longer seems like good advice. So my question is, where would you send them now?

I think we just got the pro-dog vote. Going straight on the t-shirts.

bsky.app/profile/tall...

Awww so true!

Printing the t-shirts…

Honestly I think we could do this! You can be my heavy 🤣

🎓 Call for Postdoctoral Candidates!

Planning to apply for a SSHRC, FRQSC, or other postdoc fellowship? Passionate about migration, international law, and human rights? The Chair on Migrant Protection and International Law @uocommonlaw.bsky.social is seeking a postdoctoral fellow to join its team!

Thank you, Nate, for helping to spread the word!

This is not just super exciting for Temple, but also a wonderful resource for folks doing participatory law scholarship. Check out the Participatory Law Fund, spread the word, and consider applying!