Legal Systems and Economic Development: The Case of Aruba Post-Coronavirus

This paper intends to critically review some of the challenges rooted in Aruba’s civil law legal heritage in stimulating a post-corona economic recovery which should ideally be driven towards economic diversification. It also seeks to contextualize the effect of Aruba’s civil law system on economic growth compared to other Caribbean states with similar size, population, and tourism dependency but with legal systems rooted in the common law. This paper’s methodological approach is meta-analytical and includes a critique of the labor laws as well as the substantive role of the state in driving economic performance that is a normative feature in some civil law states. It posits that Aruba’s economic responsiveness, to the coronavirus should consider legal origins as a factor that limits its capacity and capability to execute an effective restructuring of tired economic paradigms and introduce new economic models that would challenge its mono-economic status.

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