Colonial Experiences and Contemporary Laws

Journal of Law and Empirical Analysis 1(2) 2024 forthcoming

78 Pages Posted: 17 Dec 2024

See all articles by Yun-chien Chang

Yun-chien Chang

Cornell Law School

Adam Chilton

University of Chicago - Law School

Nuno Garoupa

George Mason University - Antonin Scalia Law School

Mila Versteeg

University of Virginia School of Law

Date Written: November 06, 2024

Abstract

Although research suggests that countries' colonial experiences are associated with a range of contemporary outcomes, the link between colonial experiences and the substance of countries' laws remains unclear. We explore this question while making four improvements over past research. First, we use more detailed data on both countries' colonial experiences and contemporary substantive laws. Second, we directly assess whether countries' shared legal origins-that is, whether they had a common law or civil law system-or their colonial origins-that is, which country had previously colonized them-are more associated with differences in their contemporary laws. Third, we use a research design that makes it possible to assess the relationship between countries' colonial experiences across different areas while accounting for differences in the measurement and coding of those laws. Fourth, we explore how the evolution of these relationships over time. We find that countries with shared colonial experiences have greater agreement in the substance of their contemporary laws compared to countries without shared colonial experiences; however, the effect is roughly twice as large for countries with shared colonial origins compared to those with shared legal origins. Moreover, this relationship is largely consistent across types of legal origins and groups of former colonies.

Keywords: Civil law, common law, legal origin, colonial origin, legal diffusion

Suggested Citation

Chang, Yun-chien and Chilton, Adam and Garoupa, Nuno and Versteeg, Mila, Colonial Experiences and Contemporary Laws (November 06, 2024). Journal of Law and Empirical Analysis 1(2) 2024 forthcoming, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=5027957 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.5027957

Yun-chien Chang (Contact Author)

Cornell Law School ( email )

310 Myron Taylor Hall
Cornell University
Ithaca, NY 14853-4901
United States

Adam Chilton

University of Chicago - Law School ( email )

1111 E. 60th St.
Chicago, IL 60637
United States

HOME PAGE: http://www.adamchilton.org

Nuno Garoupa

George Mason University - Antonin Scalia Law School ( email )

3301 Fairfax Drive
Arlington, VA 22201
United States

Mila Versteeg

University of Virginia School of Law ( email )

580 Massie Road
Charlottesville, VA 22903
United States

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