Mis-uses of comparative law in international development

Mis-uses of Comparative Law in International Development exposes the blind spots and unintended consequences of treating comparative law—the theory and practice of evaluating foreign legal systems— as an apolitical, legalistic, and non-critical tool in international development. Drawing on compelling case studies and interdisciplinary insights, the book reveals how legal transplants, governance indicators, and rule-of-law expertise –when deployed by development experts who ignore critical insights from within the comparative law discipline—often reinforce inequality, depoliticize reforms, and obscure both distributive consequences and local agency based on neoliberal or authoritarian agendas.

Challenging dominant narratives of legalism, efficiency, and best practices, the book calls for a reflexive, historically grounded, and emancipatory approach to comparative law—one capable of confronting the structural hierarchies embedded in global capitalism and in authoritarian transfers when deployed for law and development reforms. By reclaiming comparative law as a political and situated practice, the book reimagines legal comparisons not as instruments of de-politicized governance, but as tools and practices for resisting authoritarianism and rebuilding the social foundations that capitalism has eroded—opening pathways toward more just, equitable, and sustainable visions of international development.