Law & governance in the developing world
- Course Code:
- 15PLAC125
- Unit value:
- 1
- Taught in:
- Full Year
This course is complementary to the LLM/MA courses in the field of Law and Development and Human Rights.
Its starting point is the main tenets of the law-and-governance movement, i.e. an emphasis on the rule of law, transparency and accountability in government, and the need to develop public law, both in terms of rules and doctrines, and relevant institutions.
The course takes a comparative public law approach to governance issues in the developing countries of Asia and Africa in the context of legal reforms in the post-cold-war era (1990 to date). It starts with considering the history of constitutional evolution and constitution-making in the post-war period, and then deals in turn with:
- the executive, especially the formation and dismissal of governments;
- the organisation and functions of the legislature, especially electoral reform and political parties;
- the judiciary in the context of judicial independence and public law adjudication;
- federalism and regional autonomy;
- watchdog bodies and anti-corruption measures;
- and coups and military governments.
The approach will be global, but selected country studies will form an important aspect of the course. The course is not concerned with corporate or private sector governance.
Objectives and learning outcomes of the course
The course aims to provide students with a critical introduction to debates over governance and law and development studies from the perspective of comparative public law.
At the end of this course, students will be able to:
- Distinguish between competing perspectives on governance.
- Examine contemporary manifestations of governance processes from a constitutional law perspective and in the context of the sociology and political economy of development.
- Critically analyse governance as a question of constitutional design and to understand how the working of specific institutions and rules is embedded within larger socio-legal frameworks and influenced by numerous agencies (e.g. political parties and elections, patterns of resource distribution, culture and history, or simple institutional self-interest).
- Illustrate this understanding through the use of specific case studies, empirical evidence and by conducting independent research with particular emphasis on comparative approaches to law and development studies, governance and public law.
Method of assessment
Assessment weighting: 60% unseen examination and 40% coursework (one essay of 6000 words) All coursework may be resubmitted.Suggested reading
Introductory Readings
Austin, Granville (1999). Working a Democratic Constitution: The Indian Experience. Oxford University Press.
Harding, Andrew J. (1996). Law, Government and the Constitution in Malaysia. Kluwer Law International.
Harding, Andrew J. and John Hatchard J., eds. (1993). Preventive Detention and Security Law: A Comparative Survey. Martinus Nijhoff.
Hatchard, John; Muna Ndulo and Peter Slinn (2004). Comparative Constitutionalism and Good Governance in the Commonwealth: An Eastern and Southern African Perspective. Cambridge University Press.
Kapur, D. and P.B. Metha, eds. (2005), Public Institutions in India:
Performance and Design. Oxford University Press.
Newberg, Paula R. (1995). Judging the State: Courts and Constitutional Politics in Pakistan. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge.
Nwabueze, Ben (2003). Constitutional Democracy in Africa: Volumes 1-5.
Spectrum Books.
