Promotion of the rule of law: reinforcing domination through the internationalisation of legal norms

Abstract

Focussing on the relationship between legal colonisation and legal globalisation in the context of post-conflict peacebuilding and reconstruction, I argue that promotion of the rule of law as social domination over local economies, politics and societies has been, historically, core to international efforts. Legal and judicial reforms, which are designed to restore and strengthen the post-conflict state, not only serve to obfuscate historical conditions associated with settler-colonial rule but also reconstitute the relationship between dominant domestic actors and global capital. Moreover, whereas rule-of-law promotion has increasingly been professionalised and standardised, the underlying objectives to promote neoliberal economic growth, subordinate indigenous legal systems, and advancing ruling interests remain the enduring legacies of legal colonialism. In making this argument, I interrogate the underlying ideological and political drivers of the UK-supported justice sector development in Sierra Leone and the US-funded rule-of-law programmes in Liberia.