The rule of law, security-development and penal aid: The case of detention in Haiti

Abstract

The combination of flawed penality, crushing poverty and a natural disaster that devastated Haiti’s already fragile criminal justice infrastructure made the country a fitting candidate for a new kind of international aid effort, which we call penal aid. This international aid effort uses rule of law theories and practices to develop credible criminal justice institutions and reform penal practice throughout the world. According to rule of law measures, detention indicates flawed justice and a weak state, whereas trial and transformative punishment promotes global security and poverty reduction. The rule of law is a method for punishing better, a mechanism of international aid, a measure of global security and a means for the recognition of law-abiding states. Rule of law reconstruction is about international state-crafting and remaking Haiti in the image of a global penal state.