Law’s ideology: Neoliberalism and developmentalism in Egyptian jurisprudence

Abstract

Abstract This article contrasts neoliberal and developmental Egyptian judicial responses to questions of social justice to examine the role of law in shaping the economy. It argues that the Supreme Constitutional Court’s jurisprudence, both before and after the Arab Spring, has advanced a neoliberal counterrevolution and legitimated an anti-egalitarian and unjust social order. In contrast, administrative courts’ rulings, particularly those that challenged the privatization of public assets after the Arab Spring, represent a developmental approach that exposes neoliberal fallacies and advances social justice and the common good. Notwithstanding neoliberal invocations of constitutional legitimacy and the rule of law, the existence of an alternative within the field of legal interpretation illustrates that constitutionalism is a site for ideological contestation between opposing visions of the social order.