Special economic zones are regarded as a magical tool of development economics. As islands of modernity, they are intended to create jobs, generate growth, and revolutionize administrative structures. This promise has led to a veritable explosion in the number of special economic zones, particularly in the Global South. Maxim Bönnemann situates the rise of special economic zones within a discourse on development economics and illustrates the central role of law using India as an example. Initially, India's zones were associated with vague and general promises of development, but their rapid proliferation quickly led to serious distribution and institutional conflicts, where vastly different visions of development collided. These conflicts have been both fueled and mitigated by India's ambivalent character as a post-colonial constitutional state. The Indian constitutional state bears not only the long shadow of colonialism but also the prospect of profound democratic and social transformation. This work was awarded the 2022 Doctoral Prize by the Faculty of Law at Humboldt University of Berlin.