LAW & ECONOMICS COLLOQUIUM
presents
Martin Sybblis
PhD Candidate, Princeton University
Sociology Department
Context and the Standardization of Commercial Law
Tuesday, April 10, 2018
12:30 - 2:00
Room FL 219 (John Willis Classroom)
Flavelle Building
78 Queen's Park
International organizations (“IOs”), in their role as “global lawmakers,” have paid very little attention to how efforts to standardize commercial law across all countries have impacted developing countries. These countries are often limited in their ability to implement multiple complex legal reforms simultaneously. As a result, model laws and standards promoted by IOs that are appropriate for more developed, multi-sector economies place resource strapped developing countries in a “Catch-22” situation. These countries can engage in legal standardization that does little to advance their economic development—because it is financially costly and leads to enforcement gaps—or they can reject model laws and standards promoted by IOs and face the harsh repercussions of lower rankings on global indicators and reductions in foreign aid. This article argues that, given the unique characteristics of developing countries, IOs interested in the efficiency gains associated with having standard laws across countries and the reassurance that high quality regulations and legal institutions underpin the global financial market should consider: (1) the economic structure of the country—what I refer to as its economic identity; (2) the state’s bureaucratic capability to implement transplanted laws effectively; and (3) how the two interact, when promoting legal reform.
Martin Sybblis is a doctoral student in Princeton's Sociology Department. His research interests include the sociology of law, political sociology, and sociology of development. Prior to his doctoral studies at Princeton, Martin served as a consultant to the World Bank in the Caribbean Country Management Unit, where he was part of the Coordination Secretariat for the Caribbean Growth Forum - an initiative led by the World Bank, Inter-American Development Bank and Caribbean Development Bank. He also worked as an Assistant County Attorney (in-house counsel) for Miami-Dade County; a corporate lawyer at Bingham McCutchen LLP, an international law firm; and as a law clerk for United States District Court Judge Marcia G. Cooke in the Southern District of Florida. Martin received a Juris Doctor from the University of Michigan Law School, a Master in Public Policy from the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University, and a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Connecticut.
For more colloquium information, please contact Nadia Gulezko at n.gulezko@utoronto.ca.
