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How Can We Know What We “Know” About Law and Development? The Importance of Taiwan in Comparative Perspective

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Legal Thoughts between the East and the West in the Multilevel Legal Order

Part of the book series: Economics, Law, and Institutions in Asia Pacific ((ELIAP))

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Abstract

This chapter will argue for the importance of Taiwan as a case study for research on relationships between law and economic and political development. The pioneering work of Professor Ma and others about law in Taiwan should be developed and expanded so that scholars around the world can incorporate Taiwan’s experience into more general theorizing about legal systems and economic and political change. Taiwan’s legal system has been relevant to both Taiwan’s outstanding record of economic development and to its successful transition to democracy, yet the role of law and legal institutions in these two markers of Taiwan’s development has been understudied in the global law and development literature. This is a serious shortcoming for the scholarly field, however, as Taiwan’s successes have been too conspicuous, and are too well established, to be ignored. This chapter will seek to address that shortcoming by surveying various claims or assumptions in the field of law and development and examining them in light of Taiwan’s experience. Much of the focus will be on areas of law that are directly related to economic development, but the chapter will also examine the role of law and legal institutions in Taiwan’s democratization. The conclusions that this chapter draws should be helpful not only to scholars but also to governments or international institutions engaging in legal reform projects in developing countries of today.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Cassel (2012), p. 175; Xu (2008), p. 2.

  2. 2.

    Trubek and Santos (2006), pp. 3–5.

  3. 3.

    See generally North (1990).

  4. 4.

    See generally De Soto (1989, 2000).

  5. 5.

    See generally Posner (1998).

  6. 6.

    See generally Winn (1994); Upham (1994).

  7. 7.

    See generally La Porta et al. (1998).

  8. 8.

    See generally Ohnesorge (2003a); Ohnesorge (2009).

  9. 9.

    Ohnesorge (2009), pp. 1625–1626.

  10. 10.

    Winn (1994), p. 194.

  11. 11.

    Upham (1994), p. 235.

  12. 12.

    The most explicit use of this academic literature in law and development practice is by the World Bank’s Doing Business project, which clearly incorporates the concerns of this literature into its “Protecting Investors” index. See Protecting Minority Investors,http://www.doingbusiness.org/data/exploretopics/protecting-minority-investors. Accessed 28 February 2016.

  13. 13.

    Champion (1998), pp. 122–135.

  14. 14.

    See generally Milhaupt (2004); Ohnesorge (2007a, b, c, d), pp. 109–110.

  15. 15.

    See generally Ginsburg (2001); Ginsburg (2002); Ohnesorge (2003b, 2006, 2007b, 2011); (2016a).

  16. 16.

    The East Asian developmental state literature is truly voluminous. Works focused on Taiwan that at least engage state-centric perspectives include Amsden (1979, 1985); Galenson (1979); Winkler and Greenhalgh (1988); Wade (1990); Simon and Kau (1992); Aberbach et al. (1994); Hsueh et al. (2001); Amsden and Chu (2003); Wu (2005); Greene (2008).

  17. 17.

    See generally Ginsburg (2001); Ginsburg (2002); Ohnesorge (2003b, 2006, 2007b, 2011, 2016a).

  18. 18.

    Ohnesorge (2008), p. 315.

  19. 19.

    Ohnesorge (2003b), p. 97.

  20. 20.

    See generally North et al. (2009).

  21. 21.

    See generally North et al. (2013).

  22. 22.

    See generally You (2013).

  23. 23.

    North et al. (2013), p. ix.

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Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank Bethany Wilson, Class of 2017, University of Wisconsin Law School, for her excellent research assistance.

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  1. University of Wisconsin Law School, Madison, WI, USA

    John Ohnesorge

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  1. John Ohnesorge
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  1. Constitutional Court, Taipei, Taiwan

    Chang-fa Lo

  2. Lee and Li, Attorneys at Law, Taipei, Taiwan

    Nigel N.T. Li

  3. College of Law, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan

    Tsai-yu Lin

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Ohnesorge, J. (2016). How Can We Know What We “Know” About Law and Development? The Importance of Taiwan in Comparative Perspective. In: Lo, Cf., Li, N., Lin, Ty. (eds) Legal Thoughts between the East and the West in the Multilevel Legal Order. Economics, Law, and Institutions in Asia Pacific. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-1995-1_4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-1995-1_4

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