History of Law and Development: The Three Moments in Context and Future Directions

Abstract Development is a concern of universal significance, even as its meaning remains contested. The meaning of law is equally varied, and the relationship between the two, therefore, admits of multiple histories. Acknowledging this plurality, the paper revisits Trubek and Santos’s three-Moments framework, covering the First Moment from the 1950s to the 1970s, the Second from the 1980s to the mid-1990s, and the Third from the mid-1990s onward. It situates the framework within the wider law and development landscape, emphasizing its complementarity with other accounts and the importance of reading each in light of the questions posed, actors and institutions examined, and meanings attributed to law and development. The paper also revisits three enduring challenges identified by Trubek: fragmentation of knowledge, the tension between generalization and context specificity, and the need for more equitable knowledge production. Finally, given the field’s growing complexity, it calls for rigorous, periodic, multimethod and multidisciplinary mapping, including scholarship beyond the field’s self-identified boundaries. Such mapping can reveal interconnections, sharpen understanding of correlation and causation, and support actionable, empirically grounded knowledge for experimentation, contextually adaptive responses, and resilient development centered on human welfare, agency, and dignity.