Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gxg78 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T13:51:23.944Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Hijacking the rule of law in postconflict environments

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 September 2018

Mohamed Sesay
Mohamed Sesay*
Affiliation:
Yan P. Lin Centre, McGill University
*
*Corresponding author. Email: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The positive effects of rule of law norms and institutions are often assumed in the peacebuilding literature, with empirical work focusing more on processes of compliance with international standards in war-torn countries. Yet, this article contends that purportedly ‘good’ rule of law norms do not always deliver benign benefits but rather often have negative consequences that harm the very local constituents that peacebuilders promise to help. Specifically, the article argues that rule of law promotion in war-torn countries disproportionately favours actors who have been historically privileged by unequal socio-legal and economic structures at the expense of those whom peacebuilders claim to emancipate. By entrenching an inequitable state system which benefits those with wealth, education, and influence, rule of law institutions have reinforced structural, social, and cost-related barriers to justice. These negative effects explain why war-torn societies avoid the formal courts and law enforcement agencies despite substantial international efforts to professionalise and strengthen these institutions to meet global rule of law standards. The argument is drawn from an historical, comparative, and empirical analysis of the UK-funded justice sector development programme in Sierra Leone and US-supported rule of law reforms in Liberia – two postwar countries often cited as prototypes of successful peacebuilding.

Keywords

PeacebuildingRule of LawJustice ReformGlobal NormsSierra LeoneLiberia
Type
Research Article
Information
European Journal of International Security , Volume 4 , Issue 1 , February 2019 , pp. 41 - 60
Copyright
© British International Studies Association 2018 

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.)

References

1 Sriram, Chandra L., Martin-Ortega, Olga, and Herman, Johanna, Peacebuilding and the Rule of Law in Africa: Just Peace? (Abingdon: Routledge, 2011)Google Scholar; Massoud, Mark F., Law’s Fragile State: Colonial, Authoritarian, and Humanitarian Legacies in Sudan (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

2 Paris, Roland, At War’s End: Building Peace after Civil Conflict (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Richmond, Oliver P. and Franks, Jason, Liberal Peace Transition: Between Statebuilding and Peacebuilding (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2009)Google Scholar.

3 Marshall, David, The International Rule of Law Movement: A Crisis of Legitimacy and the Way Forward (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2014)Google Scholar; Haggard, Stephen and Tiede, Lydia, ‘The rule of law in post-conflict settings: the empirical record’, International Studies Quarterly, 58 (2014), pp. 405–417 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

4 Chandler, David and Richmond, Oliver, ‘Contesting post-liberalism: Governmentality or emancipation?’, Journal of International Relations and Development, 18:1 (2015), pp. 1–25 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Newman, Edward, Paris, Roland, and Richmond, Oliver P., New Perspectives on Liberal Peacebuilding (Tokyo: United Nations University Press, 2009)Google Scholar; Stammes, Eli, ‘Values, context, and hybridity: Insights of the UN peacebuilding architecture’, in Tom Young (ed.), Readings in the International Relations of Africa (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2016)Google Scholar.

5 Autesserre, Severine, Peaceland: Conflict Resolution and the Everyday Politics of International Intervention (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Autesserre, Severine, The Trouble with the Congo: Local Violence and the Failure of International Peacebuilding (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Autesserre, Severine, ‘D. R. Congo: Explaining peace building failures, 2003–2006’, Review of African Political Economy, 34:113 (2007), pp. 423–441 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

6 Autesserre, Peaceland, p. 98.

7 Ibid.

8 Massoud, Mark Fathi, ‘Work rules: How international NGOs build rule of law in war-torn societies’, Law & Society Review, 49:2 (2015), p. 334 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

9 Ginty, Roger Mac, ‘Routine peace: Technocracy and peacebuilding’, Cooperation and Conflict, 47:3 (2012), p. 288 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

10 Ibid.

11 Kothari, Uma, ‘Authority and expertise: the professionalization of international development and the ordering of dissent’, Antipode, 37:3 (2005), pp. 425–446 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

12 Ibid., p. 433.

13 Scott, James C., Seeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1998).Google Scholar

14 Ibid., p. 48.

15 Ibid., p. 311.

16 Ibid., p. 18.

17 Ibid., p. 49.

18 Björkdahl, Annika and Gusic, Ivan, ‘“Global” norms and “local” agency: Frictional peacebuilding in Kosovo’, Journal of International Relations and Development, 18 (2015), pp. 265–287 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Richmond, Oliver P., A Post-Liberal Peace (London: Routledge, 2012)Google Scholar; Mac Ginty, Roger, International Peacebuilding and Local Resistance: Hybrid Forms of Peace (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

19 Mac Ginty, International Peacebuilding and Local Resistance, p. 17.

20 Richmond, Oliver P., Palgrave Advances in Peacebuilding: Critical Developments and Approaches (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

21 Massoud, ‘Work rules’; Lake, Milli, ‘Building the rule of war: Post-conflict institutions and micro-dynamics of conflict in Eastern Congo’, International Organization, 71 (2017), pp. 281–315 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

22 Boutros Boutros-Ghali, An Agenda for Peace: Preventive Diplomacy, Peacemaking and Peacekeeping, United Nations report (1992); Lakhdar Brahimi, Comprehensive Review of the Whole Question of Peacekeeping Operations in all their Aspects, United Nations report (August 2000); Keating, Thomas F. and Knight, Andy W. (eds), Building Sustainable Peace (New York: UN University Press, 2004)Google Scholar.

23 These efforts have been well documented. See, for example, Chandler, David, ‘Imposing the rule of law: the lessons of BiH for peacebuilding in Iraq’, International Peacekeeping, 11:2 (2004), pp. 312–333 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Stromseth, Jane, Wippman, David, and Brooks, Rosa, Can Might Make Might? Building the Rule of Law after Military Interventions (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Mani, Rama, ‘Conflict resolution, justice and the law: Rebuilding the rule of law in the aftermath of complex political emergencies’, International Peacekeeping, 5:3 (1998), pp. 1–25 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Almeida Cravo, Teresa, ‘Linking peacebuilding, rule of law and security sector reform: the European Union’s experience’, Asia Europe Journal: Studies on Common Policy Challenges, 14:1 (2016), pp. 107–124 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

24 DFID, ‘Building the State and Securing the Peace’, policy paper (2009), p. 15; DFID, ‘Building Peaceful States and Societies’, practice paper (2010); OECD, ‘Principles for good international engagement in fragile states and situations’, OECD Journal on Development, 9:3 (2009), pp. 61–148 Google Scholar; World Bank, Conflict, Security, and Development (World Development Report, 2011); United Nations, ‘Transforming our World: The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development’, UN Sustainable Development Goals.

25 McAdams, James A., Transitional Justice and the Rule of Law in New Democracies (Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 1997)Google Scholar.

26 Denney, Lisa, ‘Reducing poverty with tear gas and batons: the security-development nexus in Sierra Leone’, African Affairs, 110:39 (2011), p. 273 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Duffield, Mark R. and Hewitt, Vernon M., Empire, Development and Colonialism: The Past in the Present (Woodbridge, Suffolk: James Currey, 2009)Google Scholar; Keukeleire, Stephan and Raube, Kolja, ‘The security-development nexus and securitization in the EU’s policies towards developing countries’, Cambridge Review of International Affairs, 26:3 (2013), pp. 556–572 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

27 Porter, Doug, Isser, Deborah, and Berg, Louis-Alexandre, ‘The justice-security-development nexus: Theory and practice in fragile and conflict-affected states’, Hague Journal on the Rule of Law, 5 (2013), pp. 310–328 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Agnès Hurwitz and Gordon Peake, Strengthening the Security-Development Nexus: Assessing International Policy and Practice since the 1990s, conference report, International Peace Academy (April 2004).

28 UN Security Council, Peacebuilding in the Aftermath of Conflict, report of the Secretary-General (2014), p. 10.

29 Denney, Lisa, Justice and Security Reform: Development Agencies and Informal Institutions in Sierra Leone (London: Routledge, 2014), p. 13 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

30 Reyntjens, Filip, ‘Legal pluralism and hybrid governance: Bridging two research lines’, Development and Change, 47:2 (2015), pp. 346–366 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Merry, Sally E., ‘Law and colonialism’, Law and Society Review, 25:4 (1991), pp. 889–922 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Merry, Sally E., ‘Legal pluralism’, Law and Society Review, 22:5 (1998), pp. 869–896 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

31 von Benda-Beckmann, Keebet F., Rules of Law and Laws of Ruling: On the Governance of Law (Farnham: Ashgate, 2009)Google Scholar.

32 Tamanaha, Brian Z., ‘Understanding legal pluralism: Past to present, local to global’, Sydney Law Review, 30:375 (2008), pp. 375–411 Google Scholar.

33 Grenfell, Laura, Promoting the Rule of Law in Post-conflict States (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Lubkemann, Stephen, Isser, Deborah, and Chapman, Peter, ‘Neither state nor custom – just naked power: the consequences of ideals-oriented rule of law policy-making in Liberia’, Journal of Legal Pluralism, 63 (2011), pp. 73–109 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

34 Isser, Deborah, Customary Justice and the Rule of Law in War-torn Societies (Washington, DC: United States Institute of Peace Press, 2011)Google Scholar.

35 Park, Augustine S. J., ‘Consolidating peace: Rule of law institutions and local justice practices in Sierra Leone’, Southern African Journal on Human Rights, 24 (2008), pp. 536–564 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

36 Slaughter, Anne-Marie, A New World Order (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2004)Google Scholar; Slaughter, Anne-Marie, ‘The new world order’, Foreign Affairs, 76:5 (1997), pp. 183–197 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

37 Autesserre, Severine, ‘Going micro: Emerging and future peacekeeping research’, International Peacekeeping, 12:4 (2014), p. 292 Google Scholar; Mac Ginty, Roger, ‘The local turn in peace building: a critical agenda for peace’, Third World Quarterly, 34:5 (2013), pp. 763–783 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

38 Roll, Kate, ‘The new local: Reappraising peacebuilding from the grassroots’, International Studies Review, 18 (2016), pp. 542–547 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Autesserre, Peaceland, p. 493.

39 Richmond, Oliver P., ‘The romanticization of the local: Welfare, culture and peacebuilding’, Italian Journal of International Affairs, 44:1 (2009), pp. 149–169 Google Scholar; Mac Ginty, Roger, ‘Indigenous peace-making versus the liberal peace’, Cooperation and Conflict, 43:2 (2008), pp. 139–163 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

40 Snyder, Richard, ‘Scaling down: the subnational comparative method’, Studies in Comparative International Development, 36:1 (2001), p. 100 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

41 Cresswell, John W., Education Research: Planning, Conducting, and Evaluating Quantitative and Qualitative Research (New Jersey: Pearson Education Inc., 2008)Google Scholar.

42 Stakes, Robert E., The Art of Case Study Research (Thousand Oaks: Sage Publishers, 1995)Google Scholar.

43 Adekeye Adebajo, ‘West Africa’s tragic twins: Building peace in Liberia and Sierra Leone’, in Knight and Keating (eds), Building Sustainable Peace.

44 Mamdani, Mahmood, Citizen and Subject: Contemporary Africa and the Legacy of Late Colonialism (Princeton: Princeton Press, 1996)Google Scholar.

45 Lubkemann, Isser, and Chapman, ‘Neither state nor custom’, pp. 73–109.

46 Christopher B. Dyck, ‘States of Unrest: Critiquing Liberal Peacebuilding and Security Sector Reform in Post-Conflict Sierra Leone (2001–2012) and Liberia (2003–2013)’ (unpublished dissertation, University of Alberta, 2013).

47 ‘In Sierra Leone, JSDP launches local court project in Moyamba’, Awareness Times (19 February 2010).

48 Government of Sierra Leone, Justice Sector Reform Strategic and Investment Plan (JSRS&IP) 2008–2010 (Justice Sector Coordination Office, Freetown, 2007)Google Scholar.

49 See {https://www.dai.com/our-work/projects/sierra-leone-access-security-and-justice-programme-asjp} accessed on 4 March 2017.

50 United States Department of States, ‘INL Guide to Justice Sector Assistance’, prepared by the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Agency (2010).

51 USAID, ‘Evaluation of Rule of Law Programs in Liberia’, prepared by Keith Henderson, Charles Jakosa, and Charles Gibson (April 2009); USAID, ‘Final Evaluation of GEMAP Activities (Governance and Economic Management Assistance Program)’, prepared by Sibley International LLC (June 2010).

52 USAID, ‘Evaluation of Rule of Law Programs in Liberia’.

53 Ibid., p. 6.

54 US Department of State, ‘Guide to Justice Sector Assistance’, prepared by the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL) (Department of State, 2010), p. 2.

55 USAID, ‘Evaluation of Rule of Law Programs in Liberia’.

56 US Department of State, ‘Guide to Justice Sector Assistance’.

57 On the agrarian rebellion literature, see Paul Richards, Fighting for the Rain Forest: War, Youth, and Resources in Sierra Leone (Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 1996); Paul Richards, ‘To fight or to farm? Agrarian dimensions of the Mano River conflicts (Sierra Leone and Liberia)’, African Affairs, 104:417 (2005), pp. 571–90.

58 Examples of such legislations include the Devolution of Estate Act (2007); Customary Marriage and Divorce Act (2009); Chieftaincy Act (2009); and the Local Courts Act (2011).

59 Adebajo, ‘West Africa’s tragic twins’.

60 Baker, Bruce, ‘Who do people turn to for policing in Sierra Leone?’, Journal of Contemporary African Studies, 23:3 (2005), pp. 371–390 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Baker, Bruce, ‘Beyond the tarmac road: Local forms of policing in Sierra Leone and Rwanda’, Review of African Political Economy, 35:118 (2008), pp. 555–570 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

61 Taylor Brown, Richard Fanthorpe, Janet Gardener, Lansana Gberie, and M. Gibril Sesay, Sierra Leone Drivers of Change, report by the IDL Group, Bristol (2005), p. 12.

62 Sawyer, Edward, ‘Remove or reform? A case for (restructuring) chiefdom governance in post-conflict Sierra Leone’, African Affairs, 107:428 (2008), pp. 387–403 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Fanthorpe, Richard, ‘On the limits of liberal peace: Chiefs and democratic decentralisation in post-war Sierra Leone’, African Affairs, 105:418 (2005), pp. 27–49 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

63 Government of Sierra Leone, The Justice Sector Reform Strategy and Investment Plan 2008–2010 (2007).

64 Interview with a lawyer, Freetown, 26 March 2014.

65 Isser, Deborah, Lubkemann, Stephen C., and N’Tow, Saah, Looking for Justice: Liberians Experiences with and Perceptions of Local Justice Options (Washington, DC: United States Institute of Peace, 2009)Google Scholar.

66 Ibid., p. 3.

67 Bilal Siddiqi and Justin Sandefur, ‘Community Based Justice and the Rule of Law in Liberia’, Centre for the Study of African Economies, University of Oxford (2009).

68 Government of Sierra Leone, Truth and Reconciliation Report (2004), vol. 2, ch. 3, p. 136.

69 Interview with tribal head, Freetown, 28 March 2014.

70 Dale, Pamela, ‘Access to Justice in Sierra Leone: a review of the literature’, World Bank Justice for the Poor Publications (2008), p. 9 Google Scholar.

71 Dale, ‘Access to justice in Sierra Leone’.

72 Interview with a lawyer, Northern Province, Sierra Leone, 26 May 2014.

73 Interview with a lawyer, Freetown, 4 March 2014.

74 Interview with local businesswoman, Freetown, 10 August 2014.

75 Interview with civil society activist, Freetown, 4 March 2014.

76 Interview with a high-profile civil society activist, Monrovia, 26 July 2014.

77 It is expected that a defendant would throw up the concoction if s/he is innocent. The poisonous element of the concoction is made from the toxic bark of the Sasswood tree (Peter T. Lesson and Christopher J. Coyne, ‘Sassywood’, paper presented at the Journal of Comparative Economics Conference, University of Pittsburgh, 9–10 September 2011).

78 These threats are often linked to spiritual forces including witchcraft. It is difficult to acquire information on these issues but respondents attested that they are a crucial problem affecting the informal economy.

79 Interview with local court chairman, Southern Province, Sierra Leone, 31 May 2014.

80 Kelsall, Tim, Culture under Cross-Examination: International Justice and the Special Court for Sierra Leone (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

81 Scott, Seeing Like a State, p. 310.

82 Interview with local resident, Monrovia, 18 July 2014.

83 Interview with rural businesswoman, Grand Geddeh County, Liberia, 19 August 2015.

84 McEvoy, Kieran and McGregor, Lorna, Transitional Justice from Below: Grassroots Activism and the Struggle for Change (Oxford: Portland and Hart Pub, 2008)Google Scholar.

85 Huyes, Luc and Salter, Mark, Traditional Justice and Reconciliation after Violent Conflict: Learning from African Experiences (Stockholm: International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance, 2008)Google Scholar.

86 Interview with local small-scale farmer, Northern Province, 10 August 2014.

87 Interview with section chief, Southern Province, 19 June 2014.

88 Interview with rural resident, Freetown, 14 August 2014.

89 Alie, Joe A. D., A New History of Sierra Leone (New York: St Martin’s, 1990); Amos Sawyer, The Emergence of Autocracy in Liberia: Tragedy and Challenge (San Francisco, CA: Institute for Contemporary Studies, 1992)Google Scholar.

90 Interview with local consultant, Freetown, 4 March 2014.

91 Manteaw, Samuel O., ‘Legal education in Africa: What type of lawyer does Africa need?’, McGeorge Law Review, 39 (2008), pp. 905–970 Google Scholar.

92 Interview with a lawyer, Freetown, 5 March 2014.

93 Interview with businesswoman, Southern Province, 13 May 2014.

94 Isser, Lubkemann, and N’Tow, Looking for Justice, p. 13.

95 Galanter, Marc, ‘Why the haves come out ahead: Speculations on the limits of legal change’, Law and Society, 9 (1974), pp. 95–160 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

96 Interviews with community-based paralegals, Sierra Leone, 11 and 14 March, 5–7 May, 29–31 May, 2 June 2014.

97 Rousseau, Jean-Jacques, Emilius and Sophia: Or a New System of Education (London: T. Becket & P. A. de Hondt, 1763)Google Scholar.

98 Paris, Roland, ‘International peacebuilding and the “mission civilisatrice”’, Review of International Studies, 28:4 (2002), pp. 637–656 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Paris, Roland, ‘Saving liberal peace’, Review of International Studies, 36 (2010), pp. 337–365 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.