Unbound: Harvard Journal of the Legal Left is seeking article submissions on the Occupy movement and the law for publication in a special Occupy issue in fall 2013. Unbound is a non-hierarchical student-run publication at Harvard Law School.
We invite submissions on two related topics:
1. The law of the camp:
Each Occupy camp faced the challenge of organizing the camp’s shared social spaces while retaining a commitment to collective decision making. Many camps also retained commitments to non-violence and non-hierarchy. Unbound seeks submissions from authors with first-hand knowledge of the life of individual Occupy camps about how an individual camp dealt with the challenge of organizing the social life of the camp while retaining its commitments, whatever those happened to be. How did the camp identify problems? How did the camp make decisions? Was a constitution or other founding document written? Were rules made? Were they written down? Were rules broken? Who determined whether rules were broken? How were rules enforced? The submissions should relate a narrative of how these issues influenced the life of the camp.
2. The law and the camp:
Each Occupy camp was confronted by the traditional and violent authority of the legal system. Many camps were threatened with violent expulsion from their occupied spaces in the name of property rights. Consequently, some camps became entangled in legal battles in courts, the outcomes of which generally involved individual judges determining whether the camps had a right to exist. Many camps actually experienced violent expulsion from their occupied spaces through police actions. Protestors were beaten and arrested. In response to these challenges, many camps established legal defense teams, frequently in collaboration with the National Lawyers Guild. Unbound seeks submissions from authors with experience working in the legal working group or legal defense team of individual camps about how the legal team or group, and the camp generally, handled the challenges posed by the legal system through institutions like the courts and the police.
We encourage submissions of any format or length, from 10 to 10,000+ words. Authors need not have legal experience or training.
If you are interested in submitting, or have questions or comments, please contact us at: unbound@mail.law.harvard.edu
Unbound is free and easily accessible online. Please do not submit any content you do not want made public, especially if you have a pending criminal or civil case related to Occupy, as information in the submission is not privileged and is subject to discovery.