The Tokyo Conference on Institutions, Law, and Development (Tokyo ILD) 2025

June 28, 2025 | Room M, GRIPS, Tokyo, Japan (Access and Maps)

About the Conference

This conference brings together leading international researchers, economists, legal scholars, and practitioners to explore the integration of evidence-based policy-making (EBPM) into judicial and institutional contexts. Showcasing cutting-edge methodologies such as text analysis and machine learning, it highlights how empirical research can inform real-world judicial and institutional reforms that promote economic development. The inaugural conference will be held at GRIPS in Tokyo, featuring distinguished economists and a sitting Supreme and High Court Justice from Pakistan.

Registration (Closed)

Keynote Speakers

• Frederico Finan (UC Berkeley)
• Mushfiq Mobarak (Yale University)

Conference Program

• 08:50 – 09:10 Registration and Welcome
• 09:10 – 09:15 Opening Remarks
• 09:15 – 10:15 Opening Keynote: Mushfiq Mobarak (Yale University)
  Addressing the Complexities of Scaling up Development Interventions through Research
• 10:15 – 10:30 Coffee Break
• 10:30 – 11:10 Sultan Mehmood (New Economic School)
  Civil Society and Democratization: Evidence from Lawyers' Movement in Pakistan
• 11:10 – 12:10 Panel Discussion Judicial Independence in Developing Countries: Challenges and Way Forward
  • Justice Mansoor Shah (Supreme Court of Pakistan)
  • Justice Ayesha Malik (Supreme Court of Pakistan)
  • Justice Babar Sattar (Islamabad High Court)
  • Moderator: Sultan Mehmood
• 12:10 – 13:00 Lunch Break
• 13:00 – 13:40 Resuf Ahmed (University of Lausanne)
  Digitizing Justice and Task Optimization: Evidence from E-Courts Reform in Indonesia
• 13:40 – 14:20 Jun Goto (GRIPS)
  Judicial Independence and Economic Development: Evidence from the Constitutional Reinterpretation in India
• 14:20 – 14:40 Coffee Break
• 14:40 – 15:20 Bakhtawar Ali (AMSE)
  Lawfare in Action: Evidence from Anti-Corruption Trials in Pakistan
• 15:20 – 16:00 Shaoda Wang (University of Chicago)
  Centralizing Policymaking: Examining the Origin and Diffusion of 116,000 Policies in China
• 16:00 – 16:10 Coffee Break
• 16:10 – 17:10 Closing Keynote: Frederico Finan (UC Berkeley)
  Malfunctioning Democracies: Understanding Accountability Failures in Developing Countries
• 18:30 Conference Dinner

Judges in Panel Discussion

• Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah (Supreme Court of Pakistan)
• Justice Ayesha Malik (Supreme Court of Pakistan)
• Justice Babar Sattar (Islamabad High Court)

Presenters

• Resuf Ahmed (University of Lausanne)
• Bakhtawar Ali (AMSE)
• Jun Goto (GRIPS)
• Sultan Mehmood (NES)
• Shaoda Wang (University of Chicago)

Organizers

• Jun Goto (GRIPS)
• Sultan Mehmood (NES)
• Yasuyuki Sawada (University of Tokyo)