The project recognises that the acquisition and utilisation of property rights has taken place neither in the sphere of private or public law but the ill-defined remnants of Soviet law. This opens up previously unexplored dimensions, explaining the failur e to legislatively transplant Western notions of property ownership.
The project will build upon normative analyses of the operation of legal institutions and key areas of substantive and procedural law.
I will focus on the contradictions between (i) the substantive content of law and its normative impact, and (ii) the constraining and empowering effect the differentiated use of law has .
I will explore the context within which these contradictions have developed, by analysing the inter-dependency of lega l reform and the culture of law within which reform is enacted . This will elucidate upon the:
-choices guiding the drafting of laws patterns of agencies charged with interpreting and applying them
-reception of law and the role it fulfils as a regulatory mechanism.
In modifying the way we approach law the research will explore the relationship between formal institutions and informal mechanisms of market regulation, illustrating:
-why the enforcement of law is selective and
-why law legitimises control a bove ownership rights .