In recent years, "public interest law" (PIL) has become a frequent component in conversations about law and policy around the globe. While this worldwide manifestation of a professional and political script that thus far seemed to be typically so American suggests a remarkable process of...

Resource-rich dictatorships are more inclined to repress civil society than others. In this paper, we identify a tradeoff between political rents from natural resources and the organizational density of civil society. This organizational density determines the extent to which citizens can...

Environmental impact assessment is currently the major Brazilian institution that routinely seeks community input about infrastructure projects. It is criticized both by activists who think it permits projects it should not and by project proponents who think that it is too slow and blocks...