Article: Building Legal Bridges
Building Legal Bridges
By Dr. Michael P. Malloy, Institute Co-Director
The Institute for Development of Legal Infrastructure, a joint operation of the Center and the Capital Center for Government Law and Policy, is dedicated to the proposition that the rule of law provides a critical infrastructure for individuals, nations and regions participating in the global economy. What does this mean in practical terms? Consider the institutional challenges confronting the multilateral organizations spawned by the Bretton Woods conference of 1944: the IMF, the World Bank, and-most recently- the WTO.
Transparency of trade and finance is critical for international security and stability and an essential element in economic development. Yet in pursuing such goals, the post- Bretton Woods system has repeatedly suffered major structural crises-refusal by the U.S. Congress to endorse the proposed International Trade Organization, resulting in the duct-taped GATT as a substitute; repudiation by most Eastern Bloc countries, robbing the system of the universality of economic and legal rules; persistence of aggressive monetary and exchange controls, inconsistent with the IMF Charter; termination of U.S. dollar convertibility in 1971 and the rise of "petrodollars" in international finance; the developing country debt crisis, beginning with Mexico in 1982; increasing prominence of regionalism in international economic arrangements, particularly international trade; and the devolution and economic transformation of the fifteen republics of the former Soviet Union ("FSU"). Ironically, these events both challenge the assumptions about the rule of law in the Bretton Woods system and at the same time underscore the necessity of vindicating those assumptions. In the absence of an acknowledged consensus of legal principles, the globalized environment of economic reconstruction and development is one of desperation and opportunism.
Transforming the economies of the FSU republics-and those of significantly underdeveloped nations-puts development theory to the acid test. Many of these nations still lack a viable economic infrastructure or preexisting practices from which development can proceed. Legal infrastructure with respect to commerce and investment often must be created de novo. Development cannot simply aid in creating physical assets; to be effective it must assist in the building legal infrastructures on which economic stability and security depend. Bridges and roads are important, but they need to lead somewhere worth going.
Read excerpts from Professor Malloy's lecture, titled Development Law and Policy and the New Ireland, presented at the Annual Conference of the Irish Association of Law Teachers. Read Professor Michael P. Malloy's comments on China-WTO Developments, in an article from the Asia Times. |
