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The Role of Law and the Rule of Law in Economic Development Process: Quest
for New Directions and Approaches in International Development Law Regime

Article  in  Denver Journal of International Law and Policy · August 2020

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Brian Ikejiaku
Coventry University
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 The Role of Law and the Rule of Law in
Economic Development Process:
Quest for New Directions and
Approaches in International
Development Law Regime
Abstract

It has generally appeared in the international development legal regime that Law
has been approached as ‘a tool for development itself’. In this sense, experts
sometimes assume that Law is both distinctively placed and uniquely suited as a
mechanism for development programmes and projects because a key function of
Law is to engineer, attain or enhance the social and economic changes necessary
to achieve the goals of development. From this perspective, it is expected that Law
will provide the infrastructural mechanism required for development, and that Law
has the capacity to bring about the social, economic, and political changes
needed, as well as necessary cultural attitudinal tenets conducive to development.
The paper examines the approaches to the Role of Law and the importance of Rule
of Law in economic development process. It critics the current approach which sees
Law as a ‘tool or mechanism for development itself’. It argues that Law and the Rule
of Law should have better roles to play in the international development process in
order to improve the development stance of the third world countries within the
global plane. In order to make the international development law agenda
‘functional’, the strategy would be to approach Law as a ‘facilitator of
development reform’ in developing countries, rather than as ‘a tool for
development itself.’ It suggests that this approach of seeing Law as a facilitator will
equally help take into consideration indigenous needs and distinctiveness, thereby
remove disagreements over reform priorities and improve efficiency and
accountability. This is a new direction which highlights the importance or necessity of
focusing the international system’s approach to Law, as a ‘means to facilitate’ local
empowerment, social cohesion and justice that is, as an approach to development
consistent with the life choices and development goals of indigenous populations,
rather than as it has generally appeared as an ‘end in itself’. The paper uses the
well-being and structural-functional legal theoretical approaches, interdisciplinary
and critical-analytical perspective within the framework of (international) law and
development. It employs qualitative empirical evidence from developed and
developing countries.
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