Old Wine in New Bottles: Public Interest Lawyering in an Era of Privatization

Both the theory and practice of public interest lawyering are in transition. Whereas the public interest lawyer of the 1960s and 1970s typically advocated before administrative agencies and courts on behalf of poor people and underrepresented groups, the public interest lawyer of today assumes a much greater variety of roles and is involved in a broader array of tasks. One of the causes of this development is the privatization of government, which has been defined as an increased reliance on the private institutions of society to satisfy public needs

The Third Moment in Law and Development Theory and the Emergence of a New Critical Practice

The study of the relationship between law and economic development goes back at least to the nineteenth century. It is a question that attracted the attention of classical thinkers like Marx and Weber. And there were some early efforts to craft policy in this area; for example, under the Raj, some English Utilitarians tried to put Jeremy Bentham’s ideas about law and economic progress into practice in India. But it was only after World War II that systematic and organized efforts to reform legal systems became part of the practice of international development agencies. Initially, development agencies turned to law as an instrument for state policy aimed at generating economic growth. Starting in the 1980s, interest in the role of law in economic development grew, but it was an interest in law more as a framework for market activity than as an instrument of state power. This book argues that, starting in the mid-1990s, development practitioners approached law in a fundamentally new way – as a correction for market failures and as a constitutive part of “development” itself. As a result, “the rule of law” has become significant not only as a tool of development policy, but as an objective for development policy in its own right. This book charts the history of this growing interest in the legal field, explores the shifting rationales behind development policy initiatives, and explores in detail the newest – and most surprising – of these rationales. To do that, we trace the history of a body of ideas about law and economic development that have been employed not just by academics but also by development practitioners responsible for allocating funds and designing projects. In this introduction, we refer to that body of ideas as law and development doctrine. Although this doctrine has academic roots in economic and legal theory, it is a practical working tool of development agencies

Produits du terroir: Similarities and Differences Between France, Québec and Vermont

Terroir is a word that carries powerful cultural and sensory associations in France. Although roughly translated a “taste of place,” terroir is more difficult to translate as a cultural concept. Terroir in France represents sensory qualities of food that capture a dynamic engagement between people, place and taste. This engagement can be seen in the decisions made by individual food producers to craft a product characteristic of their region. In France this engagement also extends to a conversation between those producing food and the regulators and researchers charged with monitoring and promoting specific products understood to have an exceptional relationship to place. This cooperation between multiple partners helps maintain an authentic sense of terroir within the modern, global food system. In both Québec and Vermont the provincial or state governments have developed a keen interest in the European investment in Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) and Geographic Indications (GI). To what extent could Vermont and Québec lead the way in developing and protecting the first New World produits du terroir with designations parallel to those found in Europe? This essay compares the different levels of engagement between product, practice and place found in France, Québec and Vermont

From <i>extractive</i> to <i>transformative</i> industries:paths for linkages and diversification for resource-driven development

While conventional wisdom has placed the focus of the mining and oil and gas sectors on the fact of extraction, a prolific line of the debate on these industries is shifting towards the extent to which resources, as initial assets, can be transformed into broader-based development by promoting cross-sectoral linkages and diversification. This paper provides an overview of the Special Issue of Mineral Economics “Can Mining be a Catalyst for Diversifying Economies”, exploring trends and suggesting challenges for concepts and practice in these industries. It points to the Post-2015 Development Agenda as an opportunity of a transformational role for the mining industry

Prepare your indicators: Economics imperialism on the shores of law and development

This article explores the influence of economics on the demand for, and deployment of, indicators in the context of the World Bank's investment climate campaign. This campaign is characterised by an emphasis on marketisation, mathematisation and quantification, which are respectively the normative, analytical and empirical approaches of choice in mainstream economics. The article concludes that economics generally, and indicators in particular, have brought a certain discipline and energy to the field of law and development. But this ‘progress’ has often been at the expense of non-economic values and interests, and even of our ability to mourn their loss

Back to the Future: The Short, Happy Life of the Law and Society Movement

The Twenty-Fifth Anniversary Meeting of the Law and Society Association: The Ice Cream Social The family has returned to Madison, Wisconsin where it all started. The old-timers are in a mood for celebration and self-congratulation. The past presidents are serving ice cream to a huge crowd of people from all over the world. These founding fathers (the first female president is still in office and isn\u27t yet eligible to serve ice cream) look pleased. This is a world they have made. It is full of old friends, recent students, ardent disciples, a few critics who have at least taken them seriously, and some strangers who (probably) know who they are. To each and all they scoop out free ice cream made by the University of Wisconsin and paid for by the association they struggled to create. It is a charming scene: modest (no caviar, no champagne), friendly (with each cone a kind owrd or two to all), egalitarian (one scoop for each). For a moment, everyone forgets the world outside. Put aside are the scars that family members bear from the struggle to create and maintain this curious project. There have been disappointments, frustrations, no little rage. Some thought they would make brilliant careers in law and other disciplines, only to encounter hostility and indifference. Some thought they would be able to mobilize the money that is needed for empirical research, only to find that funding sources can be indifferent to scholarship that doesn\u27t support conclusions already reached. Some thought students would be fascinated by the insights they could offer on the role of law in society, only to find that students wanted tips on how to pick juries. Some expected to reform American society through law, only to find America wanted little reform and thought it had too much law. But at the ice cream social, all these disappointments could be put aside. The family had survived, and that was enough