How are justice and social order administered and experienced in poor, politically fragile and conflict-affected environments? This paper argues that international policies on expanding access to justice or promoting rule of law are devised and implemented on the basis of norms and assumptions rather than on evidence and careful analysis. The development and framing of policy interventions need to be more context sensitive.
The article draws upon current debates in the field, and ethnographic research from six case studies in countries with formal (internationally recognised governments) and informal systems (based on combinations of patronage, kinship, and religion): Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Northern Uganda, South Sudan and Timor-Leste. It explores how legal pluralism and public authority operate in context; how to evaluate whether ‘justice’ is being done; and the stark differences between local realities and the normative assumptions that currently guide international development interventions, particularly around rule-of-law reform and access to justice initiatives.
Key Findings
- In any given situation, power and societal dynamics are deeply complex and should be understood as such.
- All contexts under study comprise ‘hybrids’ of formal systems (institutions of internationally recognised governments) and informal systems based on combinations of patronage, kinship and religion.
- It is not always clear that justice is the standard which laws and rules are designed to meet; communities seek other public goods such as social harmony in response to settling disputes.
- The examples of rule of law programmes target the reform of state level arrangements, but are also designed to make customary, hybrid and local justice practices more legible to an international audience.
Recommendation
The study recommends that the international community abandon the preconception that elites and citizens of developing countries have the same developmental interests and goals, and instead stresses the need to understand local political incentive structures to make change happen. As such, outsiders should adapt ‘practical hybrids’ – strategies that combine local social norms and moral economies with imported and tested governance practices.
