Counter-revolution by Ideology? Law and development's vision(s) for post-revolutionary Egypt

Abstract

Law and development, as both movement and practice, has led a tumultuous life: a hurried zenith cut short by a fatal critique followed by an opportunistic resurrection. The name alone is sufficient to trigger a range of reactions, extending from the complimentary to the condemnatory. In this article I track law and development's evolution via an examination of its role in the remodelling of Egyptian society in the post-Nasser era. While the 2011 revolution has encouraged institutions such as usaid to hasten their legal reform efforts, I argue that these are more akin to counter-revolution by ideology than genuine revolution by law. Nevertheless, rather than relegate the movement to the annals of imperial intrigue, I conclude by proposing the use of legal pluralism to revive, and possibly ignite, law and development's emancipatory potential.

Notes

1 D Trubek, ‘The owl and the pussy-cat: is there a future for law and development?’, Wisconsin International Law Journal, 25, 2007, p 235.

2 L Tragardh, ‘The Swedish model is the opposite of the big society’, Guardian, 10 February 2012.

3 Ibid.

4 Ibid.

5 U Mattei & L Nader, Plunder: When the Rule of Law is Illegal, Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2008.

6 See Trubek, ‘The owl and the pussy-cat’, p 238.

7 A Shalakany, ‘“I heard it all before”: Egyptian tales of law and development’, Third World Quarterly, 27(5), 2006, p 834.

8 T Moustafa, ‘Law versus the state: the judicialization of politics in Egypt’, Law & Social Inquiry, 28, 2003, p 888.

9 F Manji, African Awakenings: Emerging Revolutions, Dakar: Pambazuka Press, 2011.

10 N Wa Thiong'o, Decolonising the Mind, Portsmouth: Heinemann, 1986.

11 A Chua, ‘Markets, democracy, and ethnicity: toward a new paradigm for law and development’, Yale Law Journal, 108, 1998, p 11.

12 Mattei & Nader, Plunder, p 89.

13 Ibid, p 134.

14 IG Shivji, ‘Law's empire and Empire's lawlessness: beyond the Anglo-American law’, Law, Globalization and Development, 1, 2003, p 3.

15 In the case of India disruptive tactics were particularly gruesome, including the amputation of Indian artisans' hands. Ibid, p 2.

16 Chua, ‘Markets, democracy, and ethnicity’, p 12.

17 Shalakany, ‘“I heard it all before”’, p 836.

18 Moustafa, ‘Law versus the state’, p 893.

19 T Mitchell, Rule of Experts: Egypt, Techno-Politics, Modernity, Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2002.

20 JT Gathii, War, Commerce, and International Law, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010.

21 Chua, ‘Markets, democracy, and ethnicity’, p 4.

22 Ibid, p 9.

23 Mitchell, Rule of Experts, p 216.

24 Ibid, p 214.

25 Mattei & Nader, Plunder, p 47.

26 Shalakany, ‘“I heard it all before”’, p 836.

27 See, for example, SF Moore, ‘Certainties undone: fifty turbulent years of legal anthropology, 1949–1999’, in M Likosky (ed), Transnational Legal Processes: Globalisation and Power Disparities, London: Butterworths/Cambridge University Press, 2002.

28 Sidel, quoted in Chua, ‘Markets, democracy, and ethnicity, p 15.

29 I observe the affinity between Thatcher–Reagan era rhetoric, pronouncements and policy choices and those prevalent since the 2008 recession commenced.

30 This statement no longer holds as much significance as it once did. In the neoliberal era both military and domestic policing activities are being increasingly contracted to private service providers. See, for example, J Scahill, Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army, New York: Nation Books, 2008.

31 Mattei & Nader, Plunder, p 45.

32 W Armbrust, ‘A revolution against neoliberalism?’, Al Jazeera, 24 February 2011.

33 Moustafa, ‘Law versus the state’, p 908.

34 Ibid, p 913, fn 65.

35 Mattei & Nader, Plunder, p 43.

36 Ibid, p 44.

37 Mitchell, Rule of Experts, p 234.

38 Manji, African Awakenings, p 4.

39 Mattei & Nader, Plunder, p 17.

40 Mitchell, Rule of Experts, p 280.

41 Ibid, pp 281–282.

42 Ibid, pp 284–285.

43 I note that Naguib Sawiris, the owner of Egypt's mobile telephone network, is now running for the Egyptian presidency with blessings from the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.

44 Mitchell, Rule of Experts, p 280.

45 Ibid, p 281.

46 M Bray, The Shadow Education System: Private Tutoring and its Implications for Planners, Paris: unesco, 2007.

47 S Hartmann, ‘The informal market of education in Egypt: private tutoring and its implications’, Working Papers Johannes Gutenberg-Universität, 88, 2008, p 48.

48 Ibid.

49 N Birdsall & L O'Connell, ‘Putting education to work in Egypt’, Carnegie Paper, 5, 1999, at http://carnegieendowment.org/1999/08/25/putting-education-to-work-in-egypt/1zy.

50 Ibid.

51 Mattei & Nader, Plunder, p 50.

52 Ibid, p 49.

53 In a lecture at the University of Denver on 25 September 2006, P Sainath, a journalist for the Hindu Times, described in depressing detail a loan offer made to him as a middle-class professional for the purchase of a Mercedes-Benz at a rate of 4%. At the same time, peasants were offered loans for the purchase of much-needed agricultural inputs at a rate of 14%; the desires of the few edge out the needs of the many.

54 Mitchell, Rule of Experts, p 214–215.

55 Ibid, p 215.

56 Ibid, p 214.

57 Ibid, p 217.

58 I recognise, however, that law and development as a formal legal discipline only came into being during the post-World War II period. My argument, which I draw from the work of Mattei and Nader, is that the development paradigm exhibits implicit and explicit strands of continuity with the colonial relationship.

59 A Anghie, Imperialism, Sovereignty and the Making of International Law, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005.

60 Ibid, pp 26–27.

61 Matter & Nader, Plunder, p 68.

62 B Chimni, ‘The Sen conception of development and contemporary international law discourse: some parallels’, Law and Development Review, 1(1), 2008, pp 8–10.

63 Mattei & Nader, Plunder, p 5.

64 But see Shalakany, ‘“I heard it all before”’, p 836, who asserts a flip-flop by Egypt's ruling regime on privatisation schemes, not unlike Pinochet's during Chile's experimentation with neoliberal precepts.

65 Ibid, p 837.

66 Personal communication with the author.

67 DM Trubek, ‘The rule of law in development assistance: past, present, and future’, in DM Trubek & A Santos (eds), The New Law and Economic Development: A Critical Appraisal, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006.

68 P Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed, New York: Continuum, 1970.

69 See http://www.devex.com/en/jobs/continuing-legal-education-specialist-egypt-consultant-18713, accessed 18 April 2012.

70 Ibid.

71 Mattei & Nader, Plunder, p 20.

72 Ibid, p 81.

73 Gathii, War, Commerce, and International Law, p 33.

74 Trubek, ‘The rule of law in development assistance’, p 13.

75 Mattei & Nader, Plunder, p 200.

76 RP Anand, ‘Asian states and the development of a universal international law: report of a seminar’, International Studies, 11, 1969, p 173.

77 Trubek, ‘The owl and the pussy-cat’, p 240.

78 Ibid.

79 RA Macdonald, ‘Metaphors of multiplicity: civil society, regimes and legal pluralism’, Arizona Journal of International and Comparative Law, 15, 1998, p 71.

80 R Buchanan, ‘Legitimating global trade governance: constitutional and legal pluralist approaches’, Northern Ireland Legal Quarterly, 57(4), 2006, p 658.

81 C Geertz, Local Knowledge, New York: Basic Books, 1983.

82 P Fitzpatrick, ‘“The damned word”: culture and its (in)compatibility with law’, Law, Culture and the Humanities, 1, 2005, p 6.

83 J Scott, The Moral Economy of the Peasant, New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1976.

84 Ibid, p 3.

85 M al Attar, ‘The transnational peasant movement: legalising freedom from want’, New Zealand Yearbook of International Law, 8, 2010, p 117.

86 Trubek, ‘The owl and the pussy-cat: is there a future for law and development?’, p 240.

87 H Dean & Z Khan, ‘Muslim perspectives on welfare’, International Social Policy, 26(2), 1997, p 197.

88 Ibid, p 198.

89 S Hansen, ‘The economic vision of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood millionaires’, Business Week, 19 April 2012, at http://www.businessweek.com/printer/articles/20938-the-economic-vision-of-egypts-muslim-brotherhood-millionaires.

90 M El Dahshan, ‘Where will the Muslim Brotherhood take Egypt's economy?’, YaleGlobal Online, 6 February 2012, at http://yaleglobal.yale.edu/content/muslim-brotherhood-take-egypts-economy.

91 Macdonald, ‘Metaphors of multiplicity’, p 79.

92 Ibid.

93 Ibid, p 90.

94 WW Burke-White, ‘International legal pluralism’, Michigan Journal of International Law, 25, 2003–04, pp 977–978.