The U.S. publisher Open Court has released The Mystery of Capital and the Construction of Social Reality, edited by Barry Smith, David M.

(June 3rd, United Nations, NY)- The Commission on Legal Empowerment of the Poor (CLEP) today launched its Final Report, “Making the Law Work for Everyone”, at the United Nations in New York. The product of research, analysis, and consultations in more than 20 developing countries, the report argues that four billion people are effectively excluded from the Rule of Law, and thus deprived of a chance to lift themselves out of poverty.

The Swiss Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Institute for Liberty and Democracy (ILD) announced the publication of Realizing Property Rights, co-edited by Hernando de Soto, President of the ILD, and Francis Cheneval, professor of political philosophy at the University of Zürich.

USAID hosted the “Poverty Reduction in Conflict and Fragile States: Institutions and State Legitimacy" symposium on April 2, 2008 to discuss current international thought on the requisite of state legitimacy for transforming unstable countries into more prosperous and stable societies. Hernando de Soto delivered the keynote speech.

Peruvian economist Hernando de Soto is the intellectual father of the World Bank’s “Doing Business” series which examines the costs of various aspects of doing business in different countries across the world, and his book, The Mystery of Capital, created waves as he explained why capitalism did well only in the West — without property rights, he argued, the costs of doing business in non-capitalist countries was too high. De Soto’s team applied for licences, power connections, land (all the things you need to set up/run/close an enterprise) and totted up the costs of doing this. If this was very high, he argued, capitalism wouldn’t prosper. His Instituto de Libertad y Democracia (ILD) has, since, tried to help countries develop property rights. He elaborates on the importance of this to Sunil Jain and Kanika Datta, on the relationship between middle classes and property rights, on China, and a host of other issues.

«Two clues: private property and the rule of law. The single most fascinating thing I read last year was about the rise of mobile phones in Kenya. Not, you might think, the most thrilling of topics. In which case you'd be wrong, because it also helps to explain the murder of Benazir Bhutto, the reaction to Gordon Brown's refusal to call an election last autumn, the growth of the EU and the past few days' riots in Kenya.»

Gautam Chikermane and Sandeep Singh of The Indian Express questioned Hernando de Soto on the the link between exclusion, poverty and law], and its relevance to ideas that India is currently grappling with - land rights, squatters, SEZs, development and eminent domain.

"The Asantehene (King of the Asante ethnic group) [is studying ways to resolve] the most serious developmental challenges facing not only the Asante ethnic group but also the entire Ghana – how to use ancestral lands, as property for loans "

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