Modern legal practice as the engine of inequality: An essay on Katharina Pistor’s The Code of Capital

Sissoko, Carolyn

Abstract

This review essay of Katharina Pistor's Code of Capital summarizes her argument: legal practice is all about the design of capital assets so that their owners' interests are maximized, and so that courts will not stop these owners from taking unfair advantage. Pistor explains how this legal regime naturally generates inequality. The summary is followed by a critique of Pistor's claim that she describes the fundamental nature of the Anglo-American legal system and a discussion of the many ways in which both courts and legislatures in the past used to constrain the growth of both unfairness and inequality.

• Journal Article Type: Book Review
• Acceptance Date: Apr 17, 2020
• Online Publication Date: Jan 4, 2021
• Publication Date: Jan 4, 2021
• Deposit Date: Jul 3, 2020
• Publicly Available Date: Jan 5, 2023
• Journal: Development and Change
• Print ISSN: 0012-155X
• Electronic ISSN: 1467-7660
• Publisher: Wiley
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 52
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 192-201
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/dech.12629
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/5876231
• Publisher URL: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/14677660