The Autonomy of Law

Abstract

Law is an autonomous sphere of human activity that serves no master other than justice. We value law for that very reason and celebrate it by proclaiming that all must bow to the rule of law. In recent years, Latin America, along with the rest of the developing world, has shown a renewed interest in law. To some extent this rule of law revival, as one author has described it,1 is fueled by the market-oriented reforms that are a product of the development policy known as "neoliberalism." The proponents of neoliberalism have sought to forge a link between that development policy and law, but in my mind there is no intrinsic connection. To insist upon one would deny the autonomy of law and ignore the fact that end of law is justice, not economic growth.