Columns
"Links I Like" on Law
Ideas/Model/Paper
- Charter cities by Paul Romer, economics professor at Stanford University
Powerful, bold "outside of the box" idea/approach to economic development.
There are two parts to the idea: 1) uninhabited land and 2) a charter granted and enforced by an existing gov't or collection of gov'ts. With the right rules from the charter, the city attracts people, infrastructure, business. Hong Kong is a modern day example of city that has these characteristics. Romer gives three examples of possiblities: 1) Canada develops a Hong Kong in Cuba 2) Indonesians flock to a manufacturing hub in Australia
3) States in India compete for the chance to build a charter city. #LAW
http://www.chartercities.org/concept
http://www.chartercities.org/faq
http://www.ted.com/talks/paul_romer.html (about 20 min)
Thinkers
Hernando de Soto - Peruvian economist famous for advocating property rights for the poor.
Main idea - impossible to have a strong market economy as long as most of the people remain on the outside looking in. There are two types of economies in a country: 1) legals - an elite minority who enjoy economic benefits from laws & globalization & 2) extralegals - majority of many possible entrepreneurs who are stuck in poverty. Assets of extralegals amount to almost $10 trillion worldwide and not fully utilized - "dead capital" in shadow of law. Extralegals create own rules to protect assets, but these are not enforceable. Property rights allow extralegals to have stake in economy, allow for information sharing, limited liabilities for businesses, access to credit and mortgages, provision of housing & infrastructure. Common framework/language/transparency of conducting business. #LAW
de Soto heads Institute for Liberty and Democracy (ILD) located in Lima, Peru
http://www.ild.org.pe/who-we-are
Author of "The Mystery of Capital"
Newsweek interview from Feb 2009
http://www.newsweek.com/2009/02/19/slumdogs-vs-millionaires.html
Group/Organization
Doing Business - World Bank initiative to give investors/business people an understanding of a country's business regulations and practices. Doing Business issues pdf's on each country and breaks down barriers to doing business in the developing world. # LAW
http://www.doingbusiness.org/
UNDP Initiative on Legal Empowerment of the Poor; shows how law can be used in development; four main areas: property rights & tenure security, labor rights, rights to livelihood & entrepreneurship, and rule of law & access to justice. #LAW
http://www.undp.org/legalempowerment/
