ABSTRACT
Law and development scholars increasingly turn their attention to the role the state-building processes play in making or breaking the legal order in post-authoritarian societies. Drawing on the experience of post-communist Russia this chapter argues that without a capable state, there is little that the enforcement of law can do to transform lives of ordinary citizens. Busy courts and impartial judges can accomplish little if successful litigants face the rest of the government apparatus that has neither willingness nor capacity (or both) to carry out judicial decisions.
