The Law, Democracy and Development Programme (LDD) at IDS brought together scholars, policy actors, and students to debate innovative research on the relationship between fundamental rights, state and non-state legal systems, and human development. It was based on the premise that legal and regulatory orders shape people’s economic and political decision-making and thus their life-chances and development opportunities. The design of legal institutions have consequences on the fate of ‘basic rights-oriented’ goals such as the ‘Millennium Development Goals’ for eliminating poverty and inequality.
The programme fostered cross-disciplinary and comparative research by sponsoring workshops, seminars, courses in the IDS MPhil and MA in Governance, and a Working Paper series. The priority focus of LDD in the 2001-05 period was on the links between legal mobilisation of civil society and state actors in defining and meeting land, housing and property rights.
In collaboration with the DRC on Citizenship, Participation and Accountability, the research examined:
- different development actors’ understanding and implementation of rights-based approaches to development
- how grassroots movements invent or redefine accountability structures in the process of claiming rights.
Details of other related research projects and workshops:
- The Rights to Property and Human Rights
- Legal Translation of Customary Law
- Legal Mobilisation of Rural Poor
- Legal Mobilisation of Urban Poor
- Right to Information
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