Abstract
We have a vast and growing literature on justice reform in the many countries that
are classifi ed as fragile, confl ict-aff ected or post-confl ict. In cases such as Afghanistan, Iraq,
Southern Sudan and the Solomon Islands this is partly because what began as a security
intervention morphed into a decade-long engagement with state-building and development.
Individual legal scholars have produced interesting case studies that highlight the limitations of conventional rule of law paradigms in fragile and confl ict aff ected states (FCSs)
(e.g. Shimada, 2009; Monson, 2011; Dinnen and Allen, 2012; Taylor and Bosch, forthcoming)
. Yet much legal scholarship remains disconnected from the new prominence of FCSs, the
rise of security sector reform (SSR) programming, and the World Bankʼs thesis regarding
cycles of violence (WDR 2011)3).
The WDR 2011 suggests a double paradox: currently we have multiple discourses of
justice reform, including law and/in development, emphasizing equitable economic growth
and ʻrule of lawʼ for state building and/or peace building. Both emphasize legal ʻinstitutionbuildingʼ that is often formalist and state-oriented; yet FCSs are self-evidently diff erent
from the economies for which this prescription was developed. We seem to be tracking
old, fl awed donor modalities of action in new, more complex settings. This article explores
how these concepts are embedded in programming documents developed by key international actors (bilateral and multilateral donors), particularly as they relate to fragile and
confl ict aff ected states, and how they have shifted in response to the challenge of FCS
settings. It identifi es one key challenge from the domain of practice of security sector
reform (SSR): the way in which SSR seeks to reshape conceptions of ʻjusticeʼ (see generally, Sedra, 2010).
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 33 - 52 |
Journal | Ajiahou Kenkyuu (Research on Asian Law) |
Publication status | Published - 2012 |