Law and Economics With Chinese Characteristics — Institutions for Promoting Development in the Twenty-first Century

Policymakers and economists largely agree that "rule of law" and property rights are essential for a sound economic policy, particularly for most developing countries. But it is becoming increasingly apparent that transplanting legal frameworks from one society to another doesn't work--even though neoliberal orthodoxy has held that it should. China's economic development offers a backdrop for developing alternative viewpoints on these issues. In this book, economists, academics, and policymakers wade straight into the discussion, using China as a concrete reference point. The volume is the result of a series of dialogues among academics and policymakers from China and around the world. While the authors are not at all of one mind on many things, they do share the conviction that China is now entering a critical phase in its economic development and in its transition to a distinctly Chinese market economy. The essays cover a broad range of subjects that have been particularly relevant in China's growth, from property rights to social rights, corporate rights, institutions, intellectual property, and justice. Although the work thoroughly analyzes the best regulatory and institutional frameworks for China's evolving economic and political strategy, its ultimate goal is bigger: it seeks to aid policymakers in both developing and developed countries to create--or in the latter case reform--institutional and regulatory frameworks to achieve equitable and sustained development.

David Kennedy joined the Harvard Law faculty in 1981 and holds a Ph.D. from the Fletcher School at Tufts University and a J.D. from Harvard. He has worked on numerous international projects as an attorney, including work with the United Nations, the Commission of the European Union, and with the private firm of Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen and Hamilton in Brussels, where his work combined European antitrust litigation, government relations advising, and general corporate law. A member of the Council on Foreign Relations, he has served as Chair of the World Economic Forum's Global Advisory Council on Global Governance. At Harvard, he served as Chair of the Graduate Committee and Faculty Director of International Legal Studies. He has lectured as a Visiting Professor at numerous universities across the across the world. In 2008-2009, he served as Vice President for International Affairs, Professor of Law and David and Marianna Fisher University Professor of International Relations at Brown University.

Joseph E. Stiglitz is the winner of the 2001 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics, and a lead author of the 1995 report of the IPCC, which shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize. He was chairman of the U.S. Council of Economic Advisors under President Clinton and chief economist and senior vice president of the World Bank for 1997-2000. Prior to Columbia he held the Drummond Professorship at All Souls College Oxford, and professorships at Yale, Stanford, and Princeton. He is the author of the best-selling Globalization and Its Discontents, Making Globalization Work, Fair Trade For All, and most recently of Freefall: America, Free Markets, and the Sinking of the World Economy. He has presented invited lectures on many occasions at the China Development Forum and other events in China