This paper examines the connection between law and economic progress in a comparative historical perspective in Europe and India. Based on the principles of institutional economics, legal history and studies of development, it contends that formal legal regimes such as property rules systems, contract enforcement systems and judicial autonomy are determinants of long run economic paths. Its paper tracks the development of mediaeval legal institutions in early modern Europe, examines the transplantation of English law into post-independent India and challenges the continuities and disjunctions of constitutional design post-independence. It also compares the empirical evidence on the manner the quality of institutions has influenced investment regimes and factor markets and distributional performance in the two regions. The analysis finds that though transplantation of the law is seldom a necessary factor of development, path-dependence of the rule of law, and vice versa, are essential complementary factors to capital accumulation and technological change.