Expert Ignorance
The Law and Politics of Rule of Law Reform

Adopts an interdisciplinary approach to study 'expert ignorance', or the power of experts who continually admit the limits of their knowledge.

Deval Desai (Author)

9781009284721, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 22 June 2023

256 pages
23.5 x 15.8 x 2.1 cm, 0.56 kg

'This erudite, engaging, and elegantly crafted book trespasses disciplinary boundaries to offer rich and unexpected insights for legal and social theorists, scholars of development and international relations, and practitioners of all stripes. It demands reading by those with a critical orientation towards projects of legal change - and re-reading for Desai's eye for vivid social, political, and lived detail.' Shalini Randeria, President and Rector, Central European University

Today, a transnational constellation of 'rule of law' experts advise on 'good' legal systems to countries in the Global South. Yet these experts often claim that the 'rule of law' is nearly impossible to define, and they frequently point to the limits of their own expertise. In this innovative book, Deval Desai identifies this form of expertise as 'expert ignorance'. Adopting an interdisciplinary approach, Desai draws on insights from legal theory, sociology, development studies, and performance studies to explore how this paradoxical form of expertise works in practice. With a range of illustrative cases that span both global and local perspectives, this book considers the impact of expert ignorance on the rule of law and on expert governance more broadly. Contributing to the study of transnational law, governance, and expertise, Desai demonstrates the enduring power of proclaiming what one does not know. This title is available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.

1. Introduction
2. Ignorance and the practice of rule of law reform
3. Projecting the rule of law
4. Performing the rule of law
5. Law and politics of rule of law performances
6. Historicising rule of law performances
7. The sociology of rule of law performers
8. Conclusion

Subject Areas: Jurisprudence & general issues [LA]