Sam Adelman and Abdul Paliwala’s new book ‘The Limits of Law and Development: Neoliberalism, Governance and Social Justice’ will be published by Routledge on 14 August 2020. The book is the first of two volumes showcasing Warwick Law School’s contribution to law and development research and teaching since its inception. All the contributors have taught or studied at Warwick or have strong links to the Law School. The book is dedicated to the late Dwijen Rangnekar who taught at Warwick and Peter Fitzpatrick, a great supporter of the Warwick programme who sadly passed away earlier this year. Both were strong advocates of global social justice.

The book examines the well-established field of ‘law and development’ and asks whether the concept of development and discourses on law and development have outlived their usefulness. Contributions come from a number of former Warwick Law School colleagues and students or external legal academics with a strong connection to the School.

The contributors ask whether instead of these amorphous and contested concepts we should focus upon social injustices such as patriarchy, impoverishment, human rights violations, the exploitation of indigenous peoples, and global heating. If we abandoned the idea of development, would we end up adopting another, equally problematic term to replace a concept which, for all its flaws, serves as a commonly understood shorthand? The contributors analyse the links between conventional academic approaches to law and development, neoliberal governance and activism through historical and contemporary case studies.

The book will be of interest to students and scholars of development, international law, international economic law, governance and politics and international relations.