Development Decision-Making and the Content of International Development Law

Abstract

International development law deals with the rights and duties of states and other actors in the development process. As the consensus view of the development process disintegrated during the 1970s and 1980s, the agreement on the content of international development law also began to break down. Today there are two competing idealized views of development. The first, the "traditional view," maintains that development is about economic growth, which can be distinguished from other social, cultural, environmental, and political development issues in society. The second, the "modern view," maintains that development is an integrated process of change involving intertwined economic, social, cultural, political, and environmental dimensions. These two views of development lead to different perceptions of the substantiw content of development law, of the importance of sovereignty, and of the relationship between national and international law in the law applicable to development.