EAST 501 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: World Justice Project, Political Studies Review, New Institutional Economics
21 Jun 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
CMPL 516: Law and Development –
W2018
Please note : I usually copy relevant part of the syllabus into my notes, then follow these with notes from the lecture.
I also sometimes include notes taken on my own while doing the readings, or excerpts from the readings themselves,
but will clearly indicate where this is the case, so as not to confuse w notes taken during lecture.
January 10 - Class 1: Introduction & a brief history of law &
development
Objectives
In this introductory class, we will present the course, its objectives, and methods of evaluation. In addition, we will
discuss why the relationship between the rule of law – domestic, international, or transnational – and development
requires a challenging articulation of concepts – especially since each of the key concepts used in this class has been
the subject of interdisciplinary debate and controversy. In addition, we will briefly survey the last decades’ major
evolutions intl. law and development policy.
Required readings
Tor Krever, “The Legal Turn in Late Development Theory: The Rule of Law and the World Bank’s
Development Model” 52: 1 Harv. Intl. L. J. (2011).
David M. Trubek, “Law and Development 50 Years On”, International Encyclopedia of Social and
Behavioral Sciences, 2nd Ed (Forthcoming).
Berg, L-A., and Desail, D., “Background Paper: Overview on the Rule of Law and Sustainable
Development for the Global Dialogue on Rule of Law and the Post ‐ 2015 Development Agenda”,
UNDP, Draft (August 2013).
World Bank Factsheet, “Law and Development Movement” (2005).
UNDP Fact Sheet on Rule of Law. “Global Focal Point for Police, Justice & Corrections (RoL) (2017).
Reading question
What are some of the key lessons learned in the aftermath of the Washington Consensus?
Lecture notes
This course:
About understanding the rule of law (ROL) and devt and institutions
Aid and trade – both criticized
-intercountry inequality has decreased through trade; inside countries, has gone up
It is critical to acknowledge primacy of political institutions
Law and its relationship to devt:
-as an instrument of devt, a barrier, a framework
ROL: end in itself
-3-4B ppl live without ROL
1960s: many former colonies gain independence; newly independent states emerging, trying to build institutions.
find more resources at oneclass.com
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2
-new nation states don’t want to be dependent import substitution economics. The state to be the engine to
lead devt.
1960s to 70s: Linear process: agricultural, service based.
-Transplant model – of US model to everywhere else. Belief that law is the most important. Build judicial
capacity law wd be effective instrument of social change. Accounts for spending of USAID. Only goals
were to build judicial capacity, train lawyers.
-Failed! Lessons learned are still pertinent.
1970s: “Neoliberalism” – everything bad is blamed on it.
-Start: Latin Am reeling under corruption, high debt, etc.
-States failed to deliver on basic promises in 1st 25 yrs. Ppl doing poorly.
-States are out of fashion
-Parity in mid-1970s: v low. Were focused only on GDP/econ measures.
-States shd do liberalized trade, privatize the public sector
-What about the ROL? Law is to support the devt of market exchange
-Coming from donor institutions (WB) and donor countries
1989: the infamous Washington Consensus
-gorbachev in the 1980s: goal to restore human dignity
-as reforms begin, soviet union begins to collapse: the West “won the game”
-“shock therapy”: goodbye socialism, hello markets (but market institutions did not exist). All companies
privatized without any legal framework
Exceptions: Asian “tigers”. V specific contextual factors.
-Japan an outlier is not pushing neolib policies. (Japan a big donor to WB.)
Around this time, realize that markets can only do so much without institutions = rules of the game
-Formal = state laws; informal rules = how society works, how social actors work w one another
New Institutional Economics (Douglas Moore/North?)
1990s: the state is back in fashion, but not state as developmental/interventionist state, but as facilitator. State makes
laws and policies to facilitate markets. Property rights and contracts are 2 institutions which need to develop and be
enforced to have stable markets.
-This is happening in the “new Europe”
China does not fit any model! Has always been state led
-Great Leap: est 39-41M ppl died
-cultural revolution
-TVE: town and village enterprises
-1978-2000 .5B ppl lifted out of poverty – by pursuing v specific policies – a single-party communist
system.
-Policy of gradualism: prioritize what suits the states agenda. This created a middle class. Not completely
eradicated poverty, but impressive
-No ROL: state is above the law – called the “socialist rule of law”
Challenging the orthodoxy
We know transplant doesn’t work, but still do it.
Slowest moving institutions are embedded norms
Formal rules need to work w informal. Indigenizing institutions in important.
Abdulnahir Naheem (??) book about indigenizing African institutions
2 critical elements for devt:
1. state accountability (mechanisms to seek accountability – how do you demand from the state?) and
2. enforcement (can suffer due to corruption, lack of capacity, etc)
2
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
3
Economic and legal empowerment. Bottom up. Also access to information
Much rhetorical discourse.
Econ devt:
-big is no longer beautiful. Focus on small, context-specific. Start small, build up. Evidence-based
-most loans now to micro-enterprise, A2J programs
Chinese model is exception: not WB loan model w conditions attached; rather investment in infrastructure…but
concerns w HR abuses, quality…
But distinguish between Chinese state as investor (new state capitalism model: China, Brazil) and Chinese private
actors investing in infrastructure – they are subject to diff rules, have diff levels of accountability.
Now “augmented” Washington consensus
“Right to development”
Group rights vs state rights
e.g. indigenous rights vs state rights to build a dam
e.g. kenyans indig group vs state desire to build state park
Measurement
Sarkozy commissioned a report about measuring poverty and wellbeing: __?, Stiglitz, Sen
1949-
UN created 9 HR conventions, ~400 rights: did not yield concrete results
Hence, MDGs. Ea country to set specific targets, monitoring.
15 years later: lots of naming and shaming.
SDG focus on inclusive reaching of targets.
Important to pause and consider how and why you are doing what you are doing.
Always flaws in measurement, but…
Legal pluralism: 2 ways to look at it – weak and strong legal pluralism
-weak: customary laws are codified, work w state laws
oe.g. Cameroon: civil law, customary law and __ all working together
-strong: all operating separately
January 12 - Class 2: What do we mean by “Rule of Law”?
Objectives
The rule of law (RoL) is undeniably a “catch term” in policy discourses. It is almost invariably presented as a
positive value. The RoL is also a constitutional principle and the source of much legal doctrine. How then can we
grasp this concept for the purposes of this course? The objective of this class is to introduce a complex concept and
its multiple facets: legal and political, progressive or conservative, substantive or aspirational.
Required Readings
Thomas Carothers, ‘Rule of Law Revival’, Foreign Affairs, c.1998, Vol. 77, No. 2 1998.
ROL reform – types of reform:
Type 1 focuses on the laws themselves.
Type 2 is the strengthening of law-related institutions
Type 3 reforms aim at the deeper goal of increasing government’s compliance with law. … The success
of type three reform, however, depends less on technical or institutional measures than on enlightened
leadership and sweeping changes in the values and attitudes of those in power. Although much of the
impetus must come from the top, nonstate activities such as citizen-driven human rights and anticorruption
campaigns can do much to help.
…
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Please note : i usually copy relevant part of the syllabus into my notes, then follow these with notes from the lecture. I also sometimes include notes taken on my own while doing the readings, or excerpts from the readings themselves, but will clearly indicate where this is the case, so as not to confuse w notes taken during lecture. January 10 - class 1: introduction & a brief history of law & development. In this introductory class, we will present the course, its objectives, and methods of evaluation. In addition, we will briefly survey the last decades" major evolutions intl. law and development policy. Tor krever, the legal turn in late development theory: the rule of law and the world bank"s. David m. trubek, law and development 50 years on , international encyclopedia of social and. Berg, l-a. , and desail, d. , background paper: overview on the rule of law and sustainable.
