Global Prescriptions

Global Prescriptions scrutinizes the movement to export a U.S.-oriented version of "the rule of law," found in the activities of philanthropic foundations, the World Bank, the U.S. Agency for International Development, and several other developmental organizations. To understand the reasons for the production of new "global legal prescriptions" and for their limited impact on the core legal institutions of the courts and the law schools, Yves Dezalay and Bryant G. Garth have brought together a group of scholars from the disciplines of anthropology, economics, history, law, political science, and sociology.

Comprised of two sections, the volume first develops theoretical perspectives key to an understanding of the production and impact of new "global legal prescriptions." The second part shifts attention to the national importation of these legal orthodoxies. The scholars provide a diverse set of sophisticated approaches, both to the circumstances promoting the production of these prescriptions and to the limitations of the prescriptions in the different national settings. Thus, Global Prescriptions provides a unique treatment for readers interested in globalization generally or the potential spread of the "rule of law" in particular.

Contributors are Jeremy Adelman, Robert Boyer, Elizabeth Heger Boyle, Miguel Angel Centeno, Heinz Klug, Larissa Adler Lomnitz, John W. Meyer, Setsuo Miyazawa, Hiroshi Otsuka, Rodrigo Salazar, Kathryn Sikkink, Anne-Marie Slaughter, and Catalina Smulovitz.

Yves Dezalay is Director of Research at the Centre National de Recherches Scientifiques, Paris.

Bryant G. Garth is Director of the American Bar Foundation.

Praise / Awards

• "Global Prescriptions is an important step forward in understanding what its editors accurately describe as 'the new legal orthodoxy' in international affairs. With a distinguished cast of authors and a multilevel focus on the uses of law on the international, transnational, and national planes, this book artfully synthesizes a critical new field of study."
  —Thomas Carothers, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace