This lecture was delivered by Professor Mariana Mota Prado, as part of the Current Legal Problems Lecture Series 2023-24.
Speaker: Professor Mariana Mota Prado (University of Toronto)
Chair: Professor Jeff King (UCL Laws)
About the lecture
Engineering uses duplication to create fail safe systems. The existence of two system components performing the same function increases reliability, as the supposedly superfluous component can be turned on if the main one breaks down. While redundancy ensures that many of our modern conveniences such as computers and planes do not crash, this solution has not been extensively explored in a legal context. This lecture will articulate some of the advantages of redundancy between different areas of the law (administrative, civil and criminal) as well at the institutional level (between bodies performing monitoring, investigative and adjudicative functions). Legal efforts to combat corruption around the world provide illustrative examples of the many advantages of this strategy, but also some of its costs. Far from providing a comprehensive empirical analysis of this subject, this lecture proposes that the topic is a fruitful one which deserves more attention among legal scholars.
About the speaker
Mariana Mota Prado is a Professor of Law and William C. Graham Chair in International Law and Development at the University of Toronto, Canada. She obtained her LL.B. from the University of São Paulo, Brazil and her master’s (LL.M.) and doctorate (J.S.D.) from Yale Law School, United States. She has published extensively on law and development, including two co-authored books with Michael J. Trebilcock: What Makes Poor Countries Poor? Institutional Determinants of Development (2013) and Institutional Bypasses: A Strategy to Promote Reforms for Development (2019). She has taught at the Centre for Transnational Legal Studies in London, the Fundação Getúlio Vargas Law School in Brazil, Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México Law School, Los Andes Law School in Colombia, and the University of Puerto Rico School of Law.
About Current Legal Problems
The Current Legal Problems (CLP) lecture series and annual volume was established over fifty five years ago at the Faculty of Laws, University College London and is recognised as a major reference point for legal scholarship. Subscribe to the CLP mailing list.