Chapter 2 runs parallel to the immediately preceding chapter by tracing the changing definitions of development, as understood and implemented by one of the pillar organizations of international financial law, ie the World Bank, whose mandate and functions have likewise been evolving. It employs the New Haven approach to international law and treaty interpretation to expound how development has come to be understood in the Bank’s operations as involving not only economic growth but also environmental, governance, and human rights concerns, despite the ‘political activity prohibition’ in its constituent instrument.

The US legal system is notoriously complex. Navigating this labyrinthine structure requires knowledge of legal precedents, procedures, and rules, along with the ability to anticipate and adapt to shifts in the legal landscape. Businesses, therefore, require the guidance of seasoned lawyers. Over the past few decades, US corporations have increasingly turned to in-house lawyers for legal services, leading to their rising prominence in the corporate hierarchy and profound changes in the US legal profession and corporate governance. This could also be true for Chinese companies operating in the United States. Hence, this chapter investigates the Chinese companies’ utilization of full-time internal legal managers within the dual institutional context. For those employing such managers, this chapter scrutinizes two key aspects: (1) whether these legal managers are locally hired or are expatriates and (2) whether they hold licenses to practice law in the United States, which approximates their ability to handle US legal risks and opportunities. Analysis under the dual institutional framework reveals not only effects of both home- and host-state institutions but also substantial intercompany variations associated with other institutional and firm-specific variables of theoretical and policy importance.