Douglass North’s Theory of Institutions : lessons for law and development

This paper offers a critical overview and assessment of North’s work on institutions and economic change, focusing on aspects of his work that are of interest to law and development scholars. It examines North’s approach to institutions through his historical work focusing on his concept of credible commitment and his interpretation of the effect of the Glorious Revolution on property rights, focusing especially on the role he assigns to property rights in bringing about the Industrial Revolution. The paper also examines North's theory of institutions focusing on three main issues: the pervasive influence of the principles of neoclassical economics; the focus on an end-point model based on successful Western economies; and the failure adequately to account for the role of organizations in the process of change. Finally, the paper discusses the role of law in North’s theory. The objective of this section of the paper is to clarify whether law, according to North is a protagonist in the process of institutional change or is merely a by-product of changes taking place elsewhere in society

Unravelling interspecific relationships among highland lizards: First phylogenetic hypothesis using total evidence of the Liolaemus montanus group (Iguania: Liolaemidae)

The South American lizard genus Liolaemus comprises > 260 species, of which > 60 are recognized as members of the Liolaemus montanus group, distributed throughout the Andes in central Peru, Bolivia, Chile and central Argentina. Despite its great morphological diversity and complex taxonomic history, a robust phylogenetic estimate is still lacking for this group. Here, we study the morphological and molecular diversity of the L. montanus group and present the most complete quantitative phylogenetic hypothesis for the group to date. Our phylogeny includes 103 terminal taxa, of which 91 are members of the L. montanus group (58 are assigned to available species and 33 are of uncertain taxonomic status). Our matrix includes 306 morphological and ecological characters and 3057 molecular characters. Morphological characters include 48 continuous and 258 discrete characters, of which 70% (216) are new to the literature. The molecular characters represent five mitochondrial markers. We performed three analyses: A morphology-only matrix, a molecular-only matrix and a matrix including both morphological and molecular characters (total evidence hypothesis). Our total evidence hypothesis recovered the L. montanus group as monophyletic and included ≥ 12 major clades, revealing an unexpectedly complex phylogeny.Fil: Abdala, Cristian Simón. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico - Tucumán. Unidad Ejecutora Lillo; ArgentinaFil: Quinteros, Andres Sebastian. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Salta. Instituto de Bio y Geociencias del NOA. Universidad Nacional de Salta. Facultad de Ciencias Naturales. Museo de Ciencias Naturales. Instituto de Bio y Geociencias del NOA; ArgentinaFil: Semhan, Romina Valeria. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico - Tucumán. Unidad Ejecutora Lillo; ArgentinaFil: Bulacios Arroyo, Ana Lucia. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico - Tucumán. Unidad Ejecutora Lillo; ArgentinaFil: Schulte, James. Belloit College; Estados UnidosFil: Paz, Marcos Maximiliano. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico - Tucumán. Unidad Ejecutora Lillo; ArgentinaFil: Ruiz Monachesi, Mario Ricardo. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Salta. Instituto de Bio y Geociencias del NOA. Universidad Nacional de Salta. Facultad de Ciencias Naturales. Museo de Ciencias Naturales. Instituto de Bio y Geociencias del NOA; ArgentinaFil: Laspiur, Julio Alejandro. Universidad Nacional de San Juan. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas, Físicas y Naturales; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - San Juan; ArgentinaFil: Aguilar Kirigin, Alvaro Juan. Colección Boliviana de Fauna; Bolivia. Universidad Mayor de San Andrés; BoliviaFil: Gutierrez Poblete, Ricardo. Universidad Nacional de San Agustín. Facultad de Ciencias Biológicas. Departamento Académico de Biología. Museo de Historia Natural; PerúFil: Valladares Faundez, Pablo. Universidad de Tarapaca.; ChileFil: Valdes, José Julian. Universidad Nacional del Nordeste. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales y Agrimensura; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Nordeste. Instituto de Botánica del Nordeste. Universidad Nacional del Nordeste. Facultad de Ciencias Agrarias. Instituto de Botánica del Nordeste; ArgentinaFil: Portelli, Sabrina Noelia. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Salta. Instituto de Bio y Geociencias del NOA. Universidad Nacional de Salta. Facultad de Ciencias Naturales. Museo de Ciencias Naturales. Instituto de Bio y Geociencias del NOA; ArgentinaFil: Santa Cruz, Roy. Universidad Nacional de San Agustín. Facultad de Ciencias Biológicas. Departamento Académico de Biología. Museo de Historia Natural; PerúFil: Aparicio, James. Colección Boliviana de Fauna; Bolivia. Universidad Mayor de San Andrés; BoliviaFil: García, Noelia. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico - Tucumán. Unidad Ejecutora Lillo; ArgentinaFil: Langstroth, Robeert. Colección Boliviana de Fauna; Bolivia. Universidad Mayor de San Andrés; Bolivi

Navigating New Landscapes: The Contribution of Socio-Legal Scholarship in Mapping the Plurality of International Economic Law and Locating Power in International Economic Relations

The evolution of international economic law in the past two decades has been characterised by the growth and diversification of international economic actors, the expansion in the substantive areas governed by international law, and, crucially, the proliferation of multiple sites of international economic governance. This web of multi-layered international economic governance is, in turn, underpinned by complex dynamics of power which structure the legal and economic relations between the subjects of international economic law and other actors impacted by international legal rules and regulation. The challenge for international legal scholarship lay not only in mapping the multiple sites of international economic governance but also in unmasking the power dynamics inherent in international economic relations. Locating and analysing power relations underlying international economic law is to crucial to understanding the cause and effect of international economic rules and institutions for rulemaking. Conventional legal scholarship with its doctrinal focus, while useful in providing the foundational basis for analysis, cannot adequately capture the complexity of contemporary international economic law. Socio-legal approaches may be able to overcome these epistemological limitations by supplying: a) the methodologies to study international economic law beyond a focus on rules and institutions; and b) the critical theoretical lens to understand the power dynamics inherent in international legal relations. The objective of this paper is twofold: firstly, it will seek to identify the contributions of socio-legal approaches to the study of international economic law; and secondly, it will explore how socio-legal scholarship can provide a methodological and theoretical framework to construct an understanding of the pluralistic nature of international economic regulatory regimes and their underlying dynamics of power. In doing so, the paper will also consider the value of juxtaposing an empirical methodology for mapping legal regimes with a critical normative approach for analysing power relations in international economic law

Democratization through law : perspectives from Latin America

Most developing countries today have launched comprehensive programmes to reform their legal system. The expectation is that improvements in the quality of the law will contribute towards the consolidation of democracy. This expectation presupposes that there is a positive correlation between effective legal systems and the quality of democracy. Law, however, is a multifaceted institution that serves many, though contradictory, functions and objectives. Thus, current efforts to build democracy through law are fraught with unexpected obstacles. Focusing on Latin America, this study aims to contribute towards understanding the obstacles, as well as the opportunities, in the path towards enhancing democracy through legal reform. The first section explains, from a historical perspective, the reason for the weaknesses of legal institutions in Latin America, taking Chile as a case study. The second examines the remarkable experience of constitutional justice in Colombia. While the lessons from history do not bode well for current attempts to use law as a device to further democracy, the experience of constitutional justice in Colombia suggests that, while legal reform is an uncertain path towards democratization, it is not altogether futile

The rule of law enterprise - towards a dialogue between practitioners and academics

For nearly two decades, international organisations and bilateral donors agencies have been involved in the promotion and implementation of legal and judicial reform projects in developing and transition countries. This paper refers to this process as the rule of law enterprise (RLE). It identifies the ambiguities and misconceptions of the RLE and asks why there has been so little interaction between those involved in the implementation of legal and judicial reform and academics with knowledge and experience on this topic. After identifying the theoretical and practical obstacles to a fruitful dialogue the paper concludes that such a dialogue could take place, provided that academics - political scientists and lawyers - and practitioners adjust their respective approaches