The rule of law and the rise of capitalism

This chapter […] offers a brief mapping, necessarily abbreviated, of the two most prominent theoretical traditions which have sought to understand the relationship between the rule of law and the rise of capitalism. It begins with a discussion of Weber’ s contribution before tracing the contours of a genealogy of what I call the neo-Weberian tradition, an arc which passes through the modernisation theories of Talcott Parson s and the Law and Development movement and ends at contemporary theories of ‘good governance’ now dominant in the major international financial institutions (IFIs). The chapter then turns to an alternate tradition of thought. It sketches an outline of Marx’s insights on law and its origins in capitalism before discussing two prominent approaches to this relationship which build on Marx’s own lapidary remarks. The first emphasises class struggle in the shaping of a capitalist rule of law, while the second traces the very legal form itself to the rise of capitalism. The chapter concludes with a brief discussion of the political stakes involved in these debates