From introduction: "During the last two decades, social scientists have begun to examine the links between law and legał systems, and the broader political and economic changes that are transforming developing democracies. In comparative politics and public law debates on democracy, legał issues raised by national and transnational human rights movements, and the rule of law, have become prominent concems. With the spread of neoliberal economic reform and with new pressures from the world economy, property rights, commercial law, and the predictability of legał systems have become dominant themes in the work of legał scholars and students of political economy. One primary goal of these evolving research agendas is to assess whether legał institutions are proving to be a catalyst, or an obstacle, to deepening democracy and economic innovation."(...)