This paper analyzes the relationship, in Colombia, between law and modernization until1945, and, since then, between law and economic development. This last phase saw atransformation from an instrumental conception of law to an understanding of law as a statemechanism used to fulfil the goals of classical liberalism. It is from this perspective that the1991 Constitution came to be seen as a source of institutions that block economic growth.This severely complicates the possibility of a dialogue between economists and lawyers,which cannot ignore the aims of development, nor can it ignore the conditions that a modelof ideal liberal institutions imposes.