‘Inequality of Goods and Lands’ in Mortgaged Democracies: Paradigms and Effects of Global Comparative Law

Abstract

The article reappraises the law’s ‘egalitarian commitment’ in an era of global inequality. It upholds that such an egalitarian predicament scarcely squares with the reality. Firstly, international groups aim to control how wealth is distributed in society; secondly, the divide between the Global South and the Global North rises at a steady rate. Thirdly, the rule of law, which should spread good governance and development, conceals a policy of domination. Finally, global financial actors code their own interests through the law by seeking a connection with the public sphere in the field of public finance. The article argues that private interests have infiltrated the public sphere and contributed, globally and domestically, to the rise of ‘mortgaged democracies’. In so doing, it draws examples from English constitutional history and considers how the common-law mentality has facilitated their advent. It then explains how this has triggered a change in how societies perceive the political bond, which is now rooted in several acts of conveyance. Finally, the article provides us with a further paradigm for the organisation of communities. English law has been able to cope to the iniquitous effects of the mortgage by developing the conception of the equity of redemption. The redemption paradigm is probably able to challenge the role of economic interests within societies and therefore radically transform the idea that political obligations might be conveyed upon condition.