Judicial decisions of public courts increasingly are based on “contract procedure,” private rules of procedure that the parties draft and assent to before a dispute even has arisen. These rules govern such matters as the forum in which the proceeding will be conducted, whether a jury will be...

Defines terrorism and the problems of agreeing on a definition, citing the Finance of Terrorism Convention, which essentially equates terrorism with politically motivated violence. Extends the emphasis on semantics to describing what it means to “finance” terrorism, again citing the Finance...

What role should for-profit organizations play in governing commercial transactions? Recent scholarship on the privatization of commercial law has advocated expanding the role of for-profits. This essay tests the merits of that proposal in a context where the case for relying on for-profits seem...

This essay addresses the question of whether there is any set of legal institutions that invariably promotes development. ‘Universalistic’ arguments answer this question in the affirmative. The essay begins by rehearsing classic objections to legal universalism. It then shows how those...

What role do foreign institutions play in combating political corruption in developing countries? This chapter begins by describing the recently developed transnational anti-corruption regime, which encompasses legal instruments ranging from the dedicated multilateral agreements sponsored by the...

This essay serves as the introduction to a collection of critical writings on the relationship between institutions and economic performance. The essay not only provides an overview of the field but also explores some of the thorny questions surrounding the definition and measurement of institutions

This article analyzes a number of yearly reports from the World Bank's Doing Business project, an ambitious international effort to measure various aspects of law and development, analyze their inter-relationship, develop benchmarks for assessment of legal systems, and suggest legal reforms....