NOTICE: Deakin and Pistor on Legal Origin Theory

Simon Deakin (Cambridge) and Katharina Pistor (Columbia) have recently edited Legal origin theory (2012):

In this volume, Professor Deakin and Professor Pistor include those key articles which highlight the major contributions to, but also the inherent limits of, the legal origin literature. They consider the merits of this approach in the context of three fields of inquiry: the study of comparative law; the analysis of the relation between law and markets; and the understanding of the role of legal systems in social ordering.

In their thought-provoking new introduction, the editors discuss the modifications to the original legal origin hypothesis over time and point the way for the future development of this influential, yet controversial, theory.

I confess that I’m sceptical of the theory, but there are some fine articles in the collection, including:

Introduction Simon Deakin and Katharina Pistor

PART I LEGAL ORIGIN: CONCEPT AND CONSEQUENCES
1. Edward L. Glaeser and Andrei Shleifer (2002), ‘Legal Origins’
2. Rafael La Porta, Florencio Lopez-de-Silanes, Andrei Shleifer and Robert W. Vishny (1998), ‘Law and Finance’
3. Rafael La Porta, Florencio Lopez-de-Silanes and Andrei Shleifer (2008), ‘The Economic Consequences of Legal Origins’

PART II COMMON AND CIVIL LAW IN COMPARATIVE LEGAL SCHOLARSHIP
4. Harlan F. Stone (1936), ‘The Common Law in the United States’
5. André Tunc (1976), ‘Methodology of the Civil Law in France’
6. Pierre Legrand (1996), ‘European Legal Systems are not Converging’

PART III DATA AND METHODOLOGY
7. Holger Spamann (2010), ‘The “Antidirector Rights Index” Revisited’
8. Michael Graff (2008), ‘Law and Finance: Common Law and Civil Law Countries Compared – An Empirical Critique’

PART IV LEGAL ORIGIN AND THE EVOLUTION OF LAW AND LEGAL SYSTEMS
9. Simeon Djankov, Edward Glaeser, Rafael La Porta, Florencio Lopez-de-Silanes and Andrei Shleifer (2003), ‘The New Comparative Economics’
10. John Armour, Simon Deakin, Priya Lele and Mathias Siems (2009), ‘How do Legal Rules Evolve? Evidence from a Cross-Country Comparison of Shareholder, Creditor, and Worker Protection’
11. Enrico C. Perotti and Ernst-Ludwig von Thadden (2006), ‘The Political Economy of Corporate Control and Labor Rents’

PART V BEYOND LEGAL ORIGIN: UNDERSTANDING INSTITUTIONAL DETERMINANTS OF ECONOMIC GROWTH
12. Daron Acemoglu, Simon Johnson and James A. Robinson (2001), ‘The Colonial Origins of Comparative Development: An Empirical Investigation’
13. Daniel Berkowitz, Katharina Pistor and Jean-Francois Richard (2003), ‘Economic Development, Legality, and the Transplant Effect’
14. Raghuram G. Rajan and Luigi Zingales (2003), ‘The Great Reversals: The Politics of Financial Development in the Twentieth Century’
15. Mark J. Roe (2006), ‘Legal Origins, Politics, and Modern Stock Markets’

PART VI COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF LEGAL SYSTEM – ALTERNATIVE APPROACHES
16. Franz von Benda-Beckmann (2002), ‘Who’s Afraid of Legal Pluralism?’
17. Ugo Mattei (1997), ‘Three Patterns of Law: Taxonomy and Change in the World’s Legal Systems’