Expert ignorance: The performance and practice of rule of law reform

Speaker: Deval Desai (University of Edinburgh)
Chair: Mona Paulsen (LSE)

Today, a transnational constellation of ‘rule of law’ experts give advice on, or prescribe, ‘good’ legal systems to countries in the Global South, for good or for ill. Yet these experts can, and often do, deny the form and content of their own expertise: “We don’t know what the rule of law is, nor how to do it.” This book identifies this form of expertise as ‘expert ignorance’. Drawing on insights from a variety of transnational fields, along with sociology, history, and performance studies, the book studies how this paradoxical form of expertise works. It also identifies its effects on the rule of law, and on expert governance more broadly. Rooted in material drawn from experiences of policy, programming, and practice, and ranging from global to local perspectives, the book is simultaneously a theoretical and methodological contribution to studies of expertise, and an analytical and empirical contribution to studies of law and governance in the context of development.

Bio

Deval is Lecturer in International Economic Law at Edinburgh Law School. His work focuses on law and development, administrative law and regulation, theories of the state, and (de)colonial patterns of knowledge and authority. He previously held research positions at Harvard Law School and the Graduate Institute. His research projects include “Reversing the Gaze: Towards Post-Comparative Area Studies”, which studies the politics of social scientific comparative methods as they are applied to political questions in Europe and the Global South; and ongoing work on legal expertise in international development. His research is also informed by a decade of experience working for the World Bank and the UN on the rule of law and governance. He trained in history and French literature (Oxford), and law and social theory (Harvard). He is a Member of the Young Academy of Scotland and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.

This seminar is organised by the Public International Law Research Hub