Law and the New Developmental State: The Brazilian Experience in Latin American Context

Description

This book explores the emergence of a new developmental state in Latin America and its significance for law and development theory. In Brazil since 2000, emerging forms of state activism, including a new industrial policy and a robust social policy, differ from both classic developmental state and neoliberal approaches. They favor a strong state and a strong market, employ public-private partnerships, seek to reduce inequality, and embrace the global economy. Case studies of state activism and law in Brazil show new roles emerging for legal institutions. They describe how the national development bank uses law in innovation promotion, trade law strengthens new developmental policies in export promotion and public health, and social law frames innovative poverty-relief programs that reduce inequality and stimulate demand. Contrasting Brazilian experience with Colombia and Mexico, the book underscores the unique features of Brazil's trajectory and the importance of this experience for understanding the role of law in development today.

David M. Trubek is Voss-Bascom Professor of Law and Dean of International Studies Emeritus at the University of Wisconsin, Madison and Senior Research Fellow in the Harvard Law School Program on the Legal Profession. A graduate of Yale Law School, he has taught at Harvard, Yale, and the Law School of the Getulio Vargas Foundation in Sao Paulo, and was Director of the University of Wisconsin, Madison's International Institute and its Center for World Affairs and the Global Economy. Helena Alviar Garcia is Dean and Associate Professor of Law at Universidad de los Andes in Bogota, Colombia. She studied law at Universidad de los Andes. She has an M.A. and Ph.D. from Harvard Law School and has been a Tinker Visiting Professor of Law at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Diogo R. Coutinho is Associate Professor of Law at the University of Sao Paulo Faculty of Law and Senior Research Fellow at Cebrap (the Brazilian Center for Analysis and Planning). He has a Ph.D. in law from the University of Sao Paulo and an MS from the London School of Economics and Political Science. Alvaro Santos is Associate Professor of Law at Georgetown University Law Center. He teaches and writes in the areas of international trade, law and economic development, transnational labor law and legal theory. He earned an SJD and LLM from Harvard Law School and an LLB from the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico.

'This pioneering and innovative set of studies will soon be required reading. One of [the] foremost authors in the field, David Trubek has together with Alvaro Santos helped spark a new generation of scholarship on law and development. This book makes good on one of the conclusions from their hugely successful earlier volume, which pointed to the need for contextual and comparative study of legal reforms in developing countries. Trubek and Santos, now with their highly talented co-editors Helena Alviar and Diogo Coutinho, are once more paving the way forward in the field, in this case by bringing together a remarkable group of scholars focusing on Latin America. Timely and thoughtfully presented, this work will contribute to academic discourses and policy debates alike.' Chantal Thomas, Cornell Law School Survival