Initial Reflections on an Interdisciplinary Approach to Rule of Law Studies
-
Aparna Polavarapu
and
Joel Samuels
Abstract
In this essay, we attempt to lay the initial groundwork for a clearer understanding of rule of law both as a concept and as a distinct field. We respond to the assertions that the rule of law field is non-existent or incoherent, and assert that a field of rule of law is not impossible to ascertain. First, we survey how rule of law – as both a term and a state of political being – is understood by practitioners and scholars, as well as how scholars reconcile the lack of a clear, widely universal understanding of the concept of rule of law. Second, we put forth our approach to rule of law studies, embodied by the Rule of Law Collaborative (ROLC) at the University of South Carolina. ROLC supports the idea that a variety of disciplines and factors impact the rule of law, while accommodating the multiple, competing understandings of the concept of rule of law that exist on the University of South Carolina campus and elsewhere.
©2015 Law and Development Review
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Editorial
- Redefining and Analyzing “Development” and the Role and Rule of Law
- Articles
- The Paradoxical Roles of Property Rights in Growth and Development
- Yong-Shik Lee, “Call for a New Analytical Model for Law and Development”: A Comment
- Initial Reflections on an Interdisciplinary Approach to Rule of Law Studies
- The Importance of the Thin Conception of the Rule of Law for International Development: A Decision-Theoretic Account
- Tracking the Law and Development Continuum through Multiple Intersections
- The World Bank’s Sustainable Development Approach and the Need for a Unified Field of Law and Development Studies in Argentina
- Policy Space and Policy Autonomy under the WTO: A Comparison of Post-Crisis Industrial Policies in Brazil and the US
- Toward an Elaboration of a More Pluralistic Legal Landscape for Developing West African Countries: Organization for the Harmonization of Business Law in Africa (OHADA) and Law and Development
- Conceptualizing the Developmental State in Resource-Rich Sub-Saharan Africa
- Trade, Development and Child Labor: Regulation and Law in the Case of Child Labor in the Cocoa Industry
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Editorial
- Redefining and Analyzing “Development” and the Role and Rule of Law
- Articles
- The Paradoxical Roles of Property Rights in Growth and Development
- Yong-Shik Lee, “Call for a New Analytical Model for Law and Development”: A Comment
- Initial Reflections on an Interdisciplinary Approach to Rule of Law Studies
- The Importance of the Thin Conception of the Rule of Law for International Development: A Decision-Theoretic Account
- Tracking the Law and Development Continuum through Multiple Intersections
- The World Bank’s Sustainable Development Approach and the Need for a Unified Field of Law and Development Studies in Argentina
- Policy Space and Policy Autonomy under the WTO: A Comparison of Post-Crisis Industrial Policies in Brazil and the US
- Toward an Elaboration of a More Pluralistic Legal Landscape for Developing West African Countries: Organization for the Harmonization of Business Law in Africa (OHADA) and Law and Development
- Conceptualizing the Developmental State in Resource-Rich Sub-Saharan Africa
- Trade, Development and Child Labor: Regulation and Law in the Case of Child Labor in the Cocoa Industry
