Rethinking the Formal/Informal Dichotomy in Development Theory

Jorge Esquirol

Professor of Law

Florida International University

Professor Esquirol was on the faculty at Northeastern University School of Law from 1997-2002 and was previously Director of Academic Affairs at the Harvard Law School Graduate Program from 1992-1997. He was the Fulbright Distinguished Chair in Law for the 2015-16 academic year at the University of Trento in Trento, Italy. He has also been a visiting research professor at the Watson Institute at Brown University, visiting professor at the University of Miami School of Law and the University of Denver College of Law, a resident scholar at the Universit de Paris X (Nanterre), France, and a visiting researcher at the Constitutional Court of Colombia. Professor Esquirol earned his undergraduate degree in Finance summa cum laude from Georgetown University, and his J.D. and S.J.D. degrees from Harvard Law School. He clerked for the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida and was an associate attorney at the Wall Street firm of Shearman and Sterling. Professor Esquirol is fluent in Spanish, French, Italian, and Portuguese. He is the author of numerous publications in the areas of law-and-development, comparative law, property, and commercial law, including “Ruling the Law: Legitimacy and Failure in Latin American Legal Systems” (Cambridge University Press 2020). He frequently lectures abroad, including at the Universidad de los Andes in Colombia, University of Perugia and University of Piemonte Orientale in Italy, among others. At FIU, he teaches commercial law, comparative law, and international trade law.

Amr Adly

Assistant Professor - Department of Political Science

The American University in Cairo

Amr Adly is an assistant professor in the political science department at The American University in Cairo (A.U.C.). He worked as a researcher at the Middle East directions program at the European University Institute. Adly has taught political economy at A.U.C. and Stanford University. He has also worked as a project manager at the center of democracy, development, and the rule of law at Stanford University, where he was a postdoctoral fellow. Adly is the author of cleft capitalism: the social origins of failed market-making in Egypt (Stanford University Press, 2020) and state reform and development in the Middle East: the cases of Turkey and Egypt (Routledge, 2012). He has been published in several peer-reviewed journals, including Geoforum, Business and Politics, the journal of Turkish Studies, and Middle Eastern Studies. Adly also frequently contributes to print and online news sources, including Bloomberg, Jadaliyya, and Al-Shorouk.