This seminar will examine the role of law and institutions in promoting development in less developed countries. The topics that will be addressed include: competing conceptions of development: economic, political, and social; theories of economic growth; the New Institutional Economics; democracy and development; public administration and development; competing theories of the role of law in development; ethnic diversity; corruption; land and property rights reform; infrastructure and development; state-owned enterprises: privatization and reform; foreign investment and trade policy; and the role of foreign aid and international institutions in development.