Law and institutions in international development - Shailaja Fennell

Rules, Rubrics and Riches highlights the limitations of existing approaches to understanding the relationship of the law to the process of development. It interrogates neoclassical economic thinking that draws on the narrow rubric of self-interest to understand the acquisition of riches. It takes issue with both the traditional 'law and development' movement, that was unable to shake colonial overtones, and the more recent 'law and economics' school that continues to emphasise the centrality of rational man at the micro level and the superiority of linear models of economic progress at the macro level.

Written as an analysis of and commentary on the contribution of the law to international development, using legal cases and development trajectories in China, India and Malaysia, the book makes the case that individuals do not operate in a vacuum but rather within the social contexts of larger human structures such as family, community and nation. Rules, Rubrics and Riches is distinctive in the view that demanding equality for the individual is inappropriate if this occurs without looking at the broader context of the need for equity: within families, communities and nations. The book offers a new frame for 'law and development' thinking that point to a new set of rules, using a broader rubrics to ensure a sustainable accumulation of riches. It will be of interest to students and scholars working in the fields of law and development, development studies and international and comparative law.

Shailaja Fennell is University Lecturer in Development Studies at the University of Cambridge. Her research interests include institutional reform; provision of education; and gender, kinship and ethnicity. Her recent publications include Gender Education and Development: conceptual frameworks, engagements and agendas (2007) edited with M. Arnot.