Law and Development in East and Southeast Asia (review)

and supervisory frameworks) in explaining their successful transformations. In the final part, four chapters are devoted to examining the country's record with respect to what is collectively referred to in the book as the social dimensions covering human resources, poverty, regional development, and the environment. Despite important strides in health and education (for example, in spending), rapid population growth and the lack of a strong population policy are deemed by Alejandro N. Herrin and Ernesto M. Pernia as the major stumbling blocks which must be squarely faced. Arsenio M. Balisacan investigates the nature, pattern, characteristics, and causes of poverty and inequality in the Philippines and emphasizes that the type of economic growth is as important as the rate of growth in attaining any headway. Another kind of inequality, spatial inequality, is the focus of Rosario G. Manasan and Shiladitaya Chatterjee. They examine the persistent disparities among the regions and offer concrete recommendations to address the uneven development. Ian Coxhead and Sisira Jayasuriya conclude the volume with a discussion of the state of the environment pointing out the major threats to sustainable economic development. These twelve chapters individually and collectively lead to a better understanding of a country that is described in the opening line of the book as "one of the world's development puzzles". As a scholarly piece, there is no question that this collection is a valuable contribution to the literature . Beyond being an academic endeavour however, the volume has practical value as well. It will enable policy-makers, development planners and practitioners, and even aid agencies to gain a better grasp of both the systemic and idiosyncratic problems that need to be addressed. Through careful and critical examination of the Philippine's past economic record, this volume provides an excellent starting point for the design of mutually reinforcing policies and programmes which will hopefully contribute to achieving sustainable, durable, and equitable growth. RAMONETTE B. SERAFICA The ASEAN Secretariat, Jakarta Law and Development in East and Southeast Asia. Edited by Christoph Antons. London and New York: RoutledgeCurzon, 2003. Pp. 387. Law and development discourses have and are still punctuated with suspicion, inconsistency, and pomposity . In the main, due to cultural and ideological differences among sovereign nations, a consensual terminology and methodology framework for Rule of Law seems hard to envisage. Max Weber's theory that the success of capitalism in Europe is in part attributed to "formal rational" law, which diffused governmental intervention and accordingly induced a high "calculable" and "predictable" economic environment, has not necessarily been accepted by particularly developing countries, including Asia. Indeed, the Western legal-liberalism paradigm has often been criticized as being "ethnocentric " and "imperialistic" (Trubek and Galanter 1974). To add to this quandary, today's research surrounding law and development is alarmingly dearth, particularly in the Asian context. More importantly, the law and development nexus is yet to be firmly established by both systematic qualitative and quantitative empirical evidence. Several questions remain disturbingly unanswered, among others: Is law an end to itself? Is law a means to an end? Is law a pre-condition to development? Do law and development converge or diverge? The relatively recent studies of Pistor and Wellons (1999) shed some light to such questions, but more in-depth research undertakings that include a multidisciplinary focus are urgently needed. Fortunately, the law and development-thinking paradigm has resurfaced to importance since the early 1990s to a large extent due to the globalization process and the end of the Cold War. However, once again the motives of the proponents namely from the Western developed world as well as international economic organizations tend to be doubted and suspected. Undeniably, the onset of the Asian crisis in 1997 has certainly brought about fresh impetus to the subject matter. This edited volume by Antons certainly captures the nuances of law and development thinking along the impact of the Asian crisis in East and ASEAN Economic Bulletin 257 Vol. 21, No. 2, August 2004 Southeast Asia. In most part, it contains papers that were presented at the International Institute for Asian Studies, in Leiden, the Netherlands, in January 1998. The paper writers are luminaries from various regions and include academics and legal practitioners. Thus...