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This article presents the reflections and debates taking place since the 1960s in “law and development,” a subfield of research within law and society studies. Closely connected to contemporary movements promoting international legal and judicial reforms, this school of thought scrutinizes the waves of legal reform transfers, orchestrated by the countries of the center within the framework of their foreign aid policies, towards developing and transition countries. They examine the law’s capacity for sparking and channelling modernization processes, foreign advisors’ ways of thinking, as well as the relevance, the conditions for effectiveness, and the negative impacts of their activities.