The COVID Pandemic and the Regulatory Geography of Rule of Law: Putting ‘Rule of Law’ in Its Place

The Law and Development Institute’s 2003 Law and Development Conference on “Law and Development Post the Pandemic” inadvertently exposes the limits of ‘rule of law’ as a conceptual device for linking law and development. As will be explored, the developmental implications of that crisis highlighted geographic aspects of law and development that more conventional foci on economic development obscure. This is because these more conventional foci overlook spatial and geographical aspects of both rule of law and ‘development’ that are much more salient when focusing on the developmental import of the pandemic. This article will explore what those aspects are.