How Do Local-Level Legal Institutions Promote Development? An Exploratory Essay

This paper develops a framework and some hypotheses regarding the impact of local-level, informal legal institutions on three economic outcomes: aggregate growth, inequality, and human capabilities. It presents a set of stylized differences between formal and informal legal justice systems, identifies the pathways through which formal systems promote economic outcomes, reflects on what the stylized differences mean for the potential impact of informal legal institutions on economic outcomes, and looks at extant case studies to examine the plausibility of the arguments presented. The paper concludes that local-level, informal legal institutions: (i) can support social substitutes for the enforcement of contracts, though these substitutes tend to be limited in range and scale; (ii) are flexible and could conceivably be adapted to serve the interests of the poor and marginalized if supportive organizational and social resources could be brought to buttress the legal claims of the disempowered; and (iii) are more likely to support personal integrity rights than the positive liberties that are also constitutive of development as freedom.

Bibliographic Details

Main Author:	Gauri, Varun
Language:	English en_US
Published:	World Bank, Washington, DC 2009-11
Subjects:	ABUSE, ACCESS TO JUSTICE, ACTIONS, ADAT LAW, ADJUDICATION, AUTHORITY, CARTELS, CIVIL SERVICE, CIVIL SOCIETY, CLAN LEADERS, CODES, COMMON LAW, COMPARATIVE LAW, CONCILIATION, CONSTITUTIONS, CONTRACT ENFORCEMENT, CONTRACT LAW, COURT, COURTS, CRIME, CRIMINAL, CRIMINAL LAW, CUSTOMARY LAW, CUSTOMS, DELIVERY OF SERVICES, DEMOCRACY, DISADVANTAGED GROUPS, DIVISION OF PROPERTY, DIVORCE, DOMESTIC ABUSE, DOMESTIC VIOLENCE, ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT, ECONOMIC OUTCOMES, FAMILIES, FINES, HOME, HOMICIDE, HOUSES, HUMAN RIGHTS, HUSBAND, INDIGENOUS WOMEN, INEQUALITIES, INEQUALITY, INFORMAL DISPUTE RESOLUTION, INFORMAL INSTITUTIONS, INFORMAL SECTOR, INHERITANCE, INSTITUTIONAL CHANGE, INVESTIGATION, JUDGE, JUDGES, JUDICIAL INSTITUTIONS, JUDICIAL POWER, JUDICIAL REFORM, JUDICIAL REVIEW, JUSTICE SYSTEM, JUSTICES, LAND DISPUTES, LAW BOOKS, LAWS, LEGAL DEVELOPMENT, LEGAL INSTITUTIONS, LEGAL JUSTICE, LEGAL PLURALISM, LEGAL PROTECTION, LEGAL SYSTEMS, LIBERTIES, LIBERTY, MEDIATION, OFFENDER, PERSONAL PROPERTY, PERSONAL SECURITY, POLITICAL CONDITIONS, POLITICAL PARTIES, POLITICAL POWER, PROPERTY RIGHTS, PUBLIC, PUBLIC LAW, RAPE, RESIDENCES, ROLE OF LAW, RULE OF LAW, SANCTION, SANCTIONS, SEPARATION OF POWERS, SEXUAL INTERCOURSE, SEXUAL VIOLENCE, SOCIAL CHANGE, SOCIAL CHANGES, SOCIAL JUSTICE, STATE INSTITUTIONS, VICTIMS, VIOLENCE, WIFE, WILL, WOMAN, YOUTH,
Online Access:	http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2009/11/11409829/local-level-legal-institutions-promote-development-exploratory-essay https://hdl.handle.net/10986/18109
Tags:	Add Tag No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!