Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-vdxz6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-26T01:10:23.533Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

3 - Conceptual Framework: Civil War through a Legal Lens

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 November 2020

Robert A. Blair
Affiliation:
Brown University, Rhode Island
Get access

Summary

The rule of law is a necessary condition for sustained peace, good governance, and economic growth. Yet for all its importance as a policy goal, the rule of law as a concept remains widely misunderstood. This chapter develops a conceptual framework for understanding the necessary conditions for the rule of law in countries where the state is just one of many providers of security, justice, and other public goods. The chapter begins by reviewing the most prominent definitions of the rule of law from both policy and scholarly circles. These definitions are grounded in the experiences of rich Western countries, and are generally inappropriate for the developing world, and for post-conflict settings in particular. The chapter then proposes a more unified definition that preserves the attractive features of existing accounts while introducing additional dimensions that better capture the nuances of legality and daily life in countries recovering from civil war.

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×