Over the last decades there has been increased recognition that law and governance matter for development, be it macro-economic growth or the improvement of micro-level basic needs and freedoms. Legislation is a central part of state legal systems, and often the written legal norms are a starting point when seeking improvement of the legal system as a whole, or one of its specific aspects. This volume discusses how legislation (the product) and lawmaking (the process) function in developing countries, and how legislation contributes to development and how lawmaking and legislation can be improved either by the country itself or by donor assisted projects. It covers topics including legal transplantation, legislative quality, linkages between legislation and implementation, and the politics of lawmaking. The resultant volume combines insights from scholars, based on conceptual analysis and empirical research, with ideas from practitioners involved in lawmaking in legal technical assistance projects. Doing so, this volume aims to be useful for both academia and practice.

Jan Michiel Otto is professor of law and governance in developing countries at Leiden University, and director of the Van Vollenhoven Institute for Law, Governance and Development.Julia Arnscheidt is a researcher at the Van Vollenhoven Institute - Leiden University

Contents - 6Abbreviations - 8Lawmaking for Development: An introduction - 121. Law and development, law and economics and the fate of legal technical assistance - 242. Using legislative theory to improve law and development projects - 543. Quality of legislation: A law and development project - 764. Lawmaking, development and the Rule of Law - 925. Legislation in a global perspective - 1346. Bargaining about the land bill: Making effective legislation to protect arable land in China - 1467. Amalgamating environmental law in Indonesia - 1728. Lawmaking in the new South Africa - 2009. Comments on lawmaking and legal reforms in Central Asia - 21810. The codification process of Russian civil law - 23211. The Russian experience: A Dutch perspective on legislative collaboration - 246References - 256List of contributors - 272Index - 274