The book, “Law and Development: An Alternative Indicator for the Measurement of Development” is authored by a Sharafat A Chaudhry, a lawyer having interdisciplinary academic and professional background in law, social sciences and humanities.
The Author Sharafat A. Chaudhry contextualizes the interacted relationship between Law and Development and proposed law to be considered as alternative indicator for the measurement of human development.
The author argued that historically economists have dominated the development discourse; hence the existing Human Development Index measures the level of development of a society, by and large through economic indicators, including education, health, housing, water & sanitation and poverty.
This book critically examined some of main theories that dominated the development discourse globally. The argument to ground an alternative for the measurement of development is two-pronged:
First, there is a strong relationship between law and development. Even with all of its different manifestations and meanings, development is almost impossible without the intervention of law. This point is mainly based on existing literature.
Second, the measurement of a society’s development is just as possible through the use of indicators relating to law as it is by using the social indicators like education, health, housing, water & sanitation and poverty.
The Author based his theory on Amertya Sen’s concept of ‘freedom from tyranny’, and suggested that the measurement of human development in a society may also be possible from the perspective of law; by developing indicators like Rule of Law, Access to Justice, Tolerance in Society and Type of Litigation or disputes prevalent in a society.
Amerteya Sen’s concept of development, which is the very base of HDI, requires the removal of the sources of ‘un-freedom’, that is poverty, and, tyranny.
The evaluation a source of un-freedom, [the freedom from tyranny, a systematic social deprivation and intolerance, or over-activity of a repressive state] which is missing from HDI may be conducted by using the indicators related to law including the assessment of the opportunities for an individual to live in an equitable, just and free society, having equal protection of the law to use one’s capabilities to the fullest.
“Law and Development” questions existing Human Development Index and opens debate for the academia to consider “freedom from Tyranny” dimension of Human Development to be included in HDI through indices like Rule of Law, Access to Justice, Tolerance in Society and Type of Litigation or Disputes to measure Human Development in its true sense.
Recognizing the importance of the theory advanced in the book, some of the leading universities in Pakistan including Iqra University and Bahria University, offering degrees in Development Studies included “Law and Development” as part of the curriculum.
The book has widely been accepted in the academic circles and it has reached the libraries of the American and Australian universities within a short span of time. The revised edition of the book sooner is expected to be in the market.
The book, Law and Development, is a great recommendation for the readers who are interested to understand development theories and the relationship between law and development measurement.
10 Comments
Komal Ayaz
“Law and Development: An Alternative Indicator for the Measurement of Development”
In this book Law and Development published by Iqbal International Institute for research and Dialogue (IRD), the author Sharafat Ali Chaudhery has depicted the importance of the inclusion of Law in development by depicting the relation between the two through careful analysis of the events from the past century. The implications of law in development in International and Domestic laws are also discussed in detail. The Author has assessed different schools of thoughts and has explained them as which are the relevant schools of thoughts and the existing literature in this context of law and development in detail. Along with this there is enough information about the diverse paradigms of development in this book as well, and they include the explanation of development with the perspective of modernization, feminism, welfare, and sustainability.
The book also gives a very comprehensive analysis of law and development at an international level and then makes it concise to national level which is Pakistan. All of this is then followed by a case study approach in which the writer has explained the relationship of law and development in two districts of Pakistan: Pakpattan and Islamabad.
The author describes development as a dynamic, long lasting concept that can vary among societies according to their socio-political, cultural and economic factors. In this book the different terms associated with development and its types are discussed and under different perspectives. It was after 1960’s when a lot of academic and legal actions were taken to approach a relationship between Law and Development and use it to establish strong international relations and promote growth and development. Like the formation of economic laws to monitor and regulate the National market and revenues, social laws to handle the class differences and criminal offences, the political laws to handle the corruption and strengthen the state actors or the individuals and vice versa.
The recuperation of academic eagerness for the relationship between Law and Development can be found in three progressing books to examine this subject by David Trubek, Alvaro and Santos etc. It reflects contemporary theory among American genuine authorities regarding the enormity of law in propelling human progression. Since the nineteenth century, masters in Law and development in the supposed third world have been anxious about the activity of legitimate establishments in the headway of human improvement in their specific social requests.
During the 20th Century, especially during the cold war area, when majority of the developing countries were caught up in the after math of the World War 2, they had to deal with their loss of infrastructure, environmental damage and the loss of lives and livelihood. It was during this time that under the international rule of Law a general term of Human Development emerged which focused on global initiatives like sustainable development, human rights, environmental damage control etc. (Pisani, 2007). This was the industrial development period, when resources were continuously consumed in increasing the output and increasing trade, with no regard to the conditions of labor and damage to the environment. Author highlights that if we look at our situation in the 21st Century, we have taken these initiatives to a next level and proper policies have been made to be followed by the international community.
Different kinds of popular litigations that exist in Pakistan are also talked about in this book. The book comes to an end by saying that the three types of litigations in courts of Pakistan can be an important indicator for measuring the development status areas of Pakistan. However, the subject matter of this book adds to an important debate of how the relationship of law and development can be understood in the context of Pakistan. This debate moreover can be even more complicated if we add the indicators of population, economy, and migration.
The author really does lay an emphasis on the importance of this relationship mainly why law should be considered as an important indicator to development, not just as an aid or some category dealt separately but law should be integrated solely while measuring development and this model, this new idea should not be considered alien when it is of much greater help to all the developing countries. A highly new concept in the field of development which needs to be promoted more as proven by this book as well.
In this book, the author has explained the Law and development nexus as constantly changing and the reason for the changes are the constant modifications and additions in the development agendas. These ever-changing development agendas demand appropriate and accurate legislative structures which suit the progressive development plans, and these legislative frameworks are necessarily required in order to ensure the proper and successful implementation of the development plans which need to be context specific in accordance with the socio-cultural, political, environmental and economic scenarios of the country that they are supposed to be applied in.
Amna Shahzad
In the book, Law and Development; An alternative indicator for the measurement of Development”, the author Sharafat A. Chaudhary extensively describes the critical relationship between the discourses of Law and Development with the support of the previously existing literature and proposes that Law can potentially serve as an important indicator for the measurement of the level of Development in a State or society. The author argues that the type of litigation that is prevalent in a state is representative of the level of development in society. And that law is a tool that is necessarily required for the proper implementation and achievement of the development objectives and should be in accordance with the specific socio-cultural, political, and economic scenarios of the state for most effective implementation.
The establishment of Law and Development as an academic discourse in the mid-20th century paved the way for new debates regarding the role that supportive legal frameworks may play in the achievement of the objectives of the rapidly evolving Development discourse. The importance of Law and Development as a field of study was based on the view that the function of law, as a regulatory body to control deviant social behavior; gives it the power to accelerate or hinder the processes of the economic, socio-cultural, political and environmental development of a State.
Existing literature relating to the ever-changing theoretical discourse of Development, especially in the latter half of the 20th century is extensively described by the author in relation to the “Rule of Law” and the roles it played in the success or failures of these development models. For instance, prior to the 1960s, Development was merely studied and applied in economic terms i.e. Capitalism and consequently, associative legal frameworks I.e. the laws and policies were mainly supportive of economic development. But the promotion of the Marxist agenda in the 1960s led to the socio-economic development discourse (Max Rheinstein ed., 1967), altering the legislative framework to establish and govern economic systems that also promote social development in the society by using legal tools in the determination of the permissible social behavior of the society and correspondingly affect and uphold the prevalence of certain levels of social equality, justice, equity and prosperity in the state. However, this was later dominated by the Capitalist agenda promoted by International authoritative bodies, resulting in the alteration of economic and social systems, but relative failure of the associated policies led to the realization of the fact that Law related to Development should be designed in accordance with the particular socio-cultural, political and economic contexts of the states and therefore, the Human Development Index(HDI) was introduced as a measure for development.
This was followed by the Sustainable development agenda, introduced towards the end of the 20th century is still highly influential and governments utilize legislative tools i.e. laws and policies to achieve objectives like environment sustainability through decreasing the use of plastic (Lee, 2017).
The author also sheds light on how Law, be it International or domestic laws, primarily related to Human Rights have a significant impact on determining the level of development of a state as a strong implementation of appropriate legislature related to basic Human Rights agendas like the availability of housing, water and sanitation, education, health and the absence of poverty, consequently results in improved development indicators of the state. Therefore, increased Human Development indicators can also represent the effectiveness of the legal bodies of the States in terms of designing and implementing associated laws.
He goes on to explain this critical relationship in terms of the significance of international human rights laws for achieving development and elaborating on the conditions of Pakistan’s development legislature. The promotion of international human rights by multiple International conventions serves as an integral tool for giving a chance to people living in the comparatively less developed world to developing themselves, especially in terms of the provision of basic human rights like education, health care, water and sanitation, housing and the absence of poverty, which in other words can be described as the minimum threshold that is required for the people of a state to live a dignified and secured life, with ample opportunities for economic, social and political mobility and progress. So, many international agreements like the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, CEDAW, etc. play an essential role in maintaining this minimum threshold for development in the under-developed or developing world.
However, in the case of Pakistan, the ineffective and fragile condition of the Legal justice system is reflective in the poor development indicators of the state in terms of the provision of basic human rights. Irrespective of the previously mentioned basic rights being declared as Principles of policy and Fundamental Rights by the Constitution of Pakistan; insufficient economic resources combined with fault implementation systems and general derogatory social customs and other issues keep the State from the achievement of these development indicators. For instance, the poor healthcare systems can be attributed to low budget allocation whereas the issue of Housing is because of the increasing Rural to Urban Migration. Moreover, the public educational systems are poor in quality and the unemployment rates are high resulting in illiteracy and poverty. So, the currently poor development indicators of Pakistan can be owed to its limited economic resources and political corruption is the major reason why multiple development projects launched in the state are unable to realize their true objectives.
In light of this, the author, Sharafat A. Chaudhary has proposed the practical inclusion of law as a part of the development indicators because of the significant impact that law has upon the achievement of the social, political, economic, and sustainable development of the state. Moreover, He is of the view that the “Type of Litigation” (the process of legal action) that is extensively employed in a state is representative of the level of development of that society (A.Chaudhary, 2018).
This means that the type of court which is most active in a state represents how developed that society is. Four types of laws i.e. Criminal law, Civil law, Corporate and Commercial Laws and Intellectual property laws are described by the author and are representative of 4 different levels of development of a society. If we consider the example of the Rural Areas of Pakistan, criminal law is most active in that particular social setting, meaning that disputes primarily related to the physical property are most common, representing the lowest level of development. In comparison to this, societies in which Civil Law and Commercial & Corporate laws are more common are considered to be at secondary and tertiary levels of development. Whereas societies in which disputes on Intellectual property are common and therefore Intellectual Property Laws are most applicable are described to be at the highest level of development. This hypothesis is justified by the Author through the comparison of the conditions of two districts, i.e. Pakpattan in Punjab and Islamabad, the Capital of Pakistan, with Islamabad emerging as the one with the strong legal system and the higher development indicators.
The theoretical framework of the author is inspired by Amartya Sen’s Capability Approach (Walker, 2007). According to the author, the removal of tyranny and crime from society can be done through the use of legal tools i.e. Laws, eventually resulting in the development of the people, which may be social, political, or economic. Therefore, the author’s study proposed that a legal indicator, i.e. “Type of Litigation” should be used as a mainstream indicator for development and emphasizes on the inclusion of “freedom from tyranny” and “removal of un-freedom” in the HDI as indicators related to Law for proper measurement of development.
In his book, Law and Development; An alternate indicator for Development, author Sharafat A. Chaudhary has elaborately explained the intricate relationship between Law and Development and the fact that supportive legal systems are needed for the implementation of development agendas. He has also explained the need for the inclusion of Law i.e. “Type of Litigation” as an indicator for the measurement of development and his argument is well justified with a proper case study. Moreover, more research and probing is required in this relatively under-discovered discourse of Law and Development.
Asma
“Law and Development: An Alternative Indicator for the Measurement of Development” authored by Sharafat A. Chaudhry, reviewed by Asma Javed.”
Law was defined as a judiciary based system which does not really play any role in the process of development where as development was defined in terms of economic growth ignoring all the other important factors which completes the word development in general and as a process. Scholars had hit the thought that law is just not an instrument to meet the development objectives but there is more to the relation between law and development. In order to identify the existing relationship between law and development and recognizing law as an important indicator of development this study has been carried out. Social indicators are used to measure the difference in the level of development of two districts while institutionalized record of cases in district courts is used as a tool to determine the level of development to explain the relationship between law and development. Law is mainly divided into four categories i.e. criminal laws, civil laws, corporate and commercial laws and intellectual property laws.
Well being in that economy as it is regularly accomplished by ignoring other development pointers including uniformity, the right to speak freely of discourse, openings for work, instruction and wellbeing. So, for a progressively compelling estimation of development, the World Bank and the UN have proposed two distinct models dependent on incorporated information concerning different pointers of human well being. The World Banks utilizes the Development Diamond Model to show relationship among four economic pointers in a nation corresponding to its normal salaries across various salary-bunches for example low-pay, lower-center pay, upper-center pay, or high-salary, while the United Nations applies the Human Development Index to decide development in a given nation. It spins around the justification that development should serve to fulfill women needs and ought to advance their opportunity, intrigue and yearning .These activities proceeded to turn into the basis for various women’s activist developments, beginning with Women in Development, then Women and Development and at last to Gender and Development which was a leave from a portion of the denigration ascribed to WID. For example, despite the fact that the tremendous inundation of Official Development Assistance and other government activities added to the general economic development in Pakistan, these activities neglected to develop development markers, for example, essential training, wellbeing, monetary chances and social and institutional development.
By perceiving and tending to the escape clauses in estimating development – guaranteeing that monetary development catches the basic parts of human development – the United Nations Development Program grew progressively far reaching records of development in the mid 1990s, in the Human Development Index, and distributed a yearly arrangement of human development reports .The institutional point of view clarifies that a lopsided result of commitments of foundations being developed because of the extractive idea of a portion of the establishments. They contend that since development in creating nations happens with regards to complex economic, social and political connections, combination to development models rehearsed in the created world would not really ensure thriving. Right now, in law from the reliance way of thinking likewise harbor questions about the possibilities of embracing or transplanting legitimate frameworks from created nations so as to carry flourishing and development to the creating scene.
Law has become the structure and jargon for building and discussing improvement arrangements, however law and development, a region of grant that investigates the connection among law and financial and social progress, is moderately obscure and immature as a scholarly field regardless of many years of research. The expression law and improvement rose and picked up centrality after the Second World War, when a gathering of researchers, experts, private establishments, and help offices in created nations put forth attempts to receive laws and lawful practices from created nations, especially the United States, so as to aid the monetary and social progress of creating nations in the Third World. The first law and improvement development was generally ineffective because of trouble actualizing laws and legitimate works on, including change of lawful training, in creating nations where key financial conditions, which were fundamental to their fruitful usage, did not exist and their nonappearance had been disregarded or overlooked. The result of the subsequent law and improvement development was blended, best case scenario, neglecting to bring about fruitful development for the majority of the creating world. For instance, law has gotten an development objective and not only a way to accomplish improvement, which was the manner by which it was seen in the two going before developments.
Momid anwar
Law and Development: An alternate indicator for the Measurement of Development by Sharafat Ali Chaudhary. Reviewed by Momid Anwar.
In his book, Law and Development; An alternate indicator for the Measurement Development, Sharafat A. Chaudhary has explained the relationship between law and development, with previously existing literature and theories, to support his hypothesis of the inclusion of Law as an indicator for measuring development in the sense that Law is an essential component required for attaining development, in the realms of social, economic, political or sustainable development. The requirement of the support if appropriate legislative structures for achieving development agendas and the fact that the type of litigation employed in a state can represent the level of development of the state is proposed by the State. (Chaudhary, 2018)
“Law” is merely a means of regulating and punishing deviant social behaviour whereas, the discipline of “Development” refers to the relative progression of the state, and is a very dynamic course with multiple agendas being incorporated into it by time to time. For instance, before the 1960s, development was merely considered in economic terms with indicators like GDP, GNP etc., used to measure it. However, the establishment of the discipline of Law and Development in the 1960s, as a result of the realization of the fact that active accomplishment of the development objectives needs the support of legal frameworks, resulted into many laws being formed in order to obligate people to achieve the development objectives. The author supports this by quoting previously existing literature regarding the evolution of the legal framework over the course of time, especially in accordance with the rapidly changing development discourse which progressed through Capitalism, i.e. economic development, to Communism or Marxism that focuses on the socio-political and economic development. The Marxist perspectives were in the 1980s, overpowered by the Capitalist agendas in the form of International Development Plans like the Structural Adjustment Programmes, but they also failed miserably. The sustainable development agenda soon followed in the 1990s and is still being implemented internationally with the support of multiple international treaties and conventions.
The author further goes on to explain the role that International declarations, conventions and agreements related to Human Rights and their associative laws, play in the development of the States, who are relatively developing or under-developed, by obligating the signatory states to uphold these human rights through multiple legal agreements. Basic human rights like Education, water and sanitation, housing, healthcare and the absence of poverty are described by the author, in relation to International and Domestic laws that are in place regarding their realization. For instance, multiple international agreements compel the States to uphold these basic human rights at all instances, since they lay the foundation for the economic, socio-political and sustainable development of a state. Declarations like Universal Declaration of Human Rights(UDHR), UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), CEDAW and many others lay down the ground rights of multiple members of the society that need to be upheld and primarily provided by the government by setting up appropriate legal structures.
The current condition of the State of Pakistan in terms of its poor development indicators relating to basic rights i.e. the access to housing, education, water and sanitation, Healthcare and the lack of poverty, is because of the improper and inadequate implementation of the legal structures and the International legal obligations that Pakistan is a part of because of an acute lack of the financial resources owned by the state, leading to limited budget being allocated to these sectors and therefore, the impact and progress is also limited.
The author describes the weak hold of the Legal justice system in Pakistan as the primary cause for why the basic human rights are not upheld in the state, combined with the lack of financial resources. In Pakistan, multiple legal structures and institutions related to education, healthcare, water and sanitation, and poverty eradication are present and are working but their capacities are limited and the international interventions and development programmes working for the cause may not take the local context into consideration, leading to the continued prevalence of these issues. The prevalence of Human Rights is guaranteed in the constitution of Pakistan through structures like Fundamental Rights and Principles of policy but implementation is restricted because of the finances.
The author’s proposal of using law as an indicator for measuring development is based on the view that the prevalence of law and order in a state is representative of the level of development of the society. This means that more developed states have achieved that level of social, political or economic development because of the adequate support of legislative frameworks. The author also explains how multiple types of litigation prevalent in a state are representative of the level of the development in state. As an example, criminal justice laws are more common in states with less civil and developed societies, whereas laws related to Intellectual Property maybe more active in comparatively developed states. Therefore, the Author’s proposition inspired by Amartya Sen’s Capability approach (Kuhumba, 2018), supports the inclusion of freedom from tyranny and removal of un-freedom as legal indicators for development.
In conclusion, Law and Development; an alternate indicator for the measurement of development proposes the inclusivity of law as an indicator for development and this is further justified by the author through a comparative case study. This argument further emphasizes the essential need for legal support for the achieving development.
erotik izle
Appreciating the dedication you put into your blog and detailed information you offer. Mirabel Tucky Nobile
erotik
Remarkable! Its in fact awesome article, I have got much clear idea on the topic of from this paragraph. Juliane Niccolo Jamal
sikis izle
I really like your writing style, good info , appreciate it for posting : D. Aubry Ansell Wolfson
yabanci
Very good article! We will be linking to this great article on our site. Keep up the great writing. Janith Rodrique Hercule
online
Thanks a lot for the blog. Much thanks again. Great. Kaye Edlin Meri
filmi izle
If some one desires expert view on the topic of running a blog then i recommend him/her to pay a visit this weblog, Keep up the nice job. Geraldine Niels Vasileior