Mythmaking in the Rule of Law Orthodoxy

Frank Upham

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Summary
As governments and donor agencies struggle over questions of aid and international development, a growing concensus is emerging that there is an explicit link between rule of law reform and sustainable growth. However, this new rule of law orthodoxy ignores evidence that the formalist rule of law advocated by the World Bank and other donors does not necessarily exist in the developed world. Moreover, attempting to transplant a common template of institutions and legal rules into developing countries without attention to indigenous contexts harms preexisting mechanisms for dealing with issues such as property ownership and conflict resolution.

Frank Upham is professor of law at New York University School of Law and a specialist in comparative law. He is the author of Law and Social Change in Postwar Japan.

Other working papers in the Rule of Law Series:
Do Judicial Councils Further Judicial Reform? Lessons from Latin America, Linn Hammergren
Foreign Direct Investment: Does the Rule of Law Matter?, John Hewko

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