International financial institutions and global legal governance

The rule of law is not just a set of rules and their judicial application. As the third volume of the World Bank legal review makes clear in its subtitle, International Financial Institutions and Global Legal Governance, the law is also about policy making, institutional frameworks, international politics, development, and ultimately-freedom. The law broadens the scope of the questions that people ask, and so helps policy makers find solutions to complex, multifaceted problems. To do that effectively, however, legal research and legal practitioners must focus on how the law can support innovative and pragmatic responses to development challenges. The law also has a role to play at the micro level of community-driven development. Ethiopia, for example, has used intellectual property tools to renegotiate the distribution and selling arrangements of its coffee production with multinational enterprises. The results have benefited both local farmers and traders.