Legal, Judicial and Administrative Reforms in Post-Conflict Societies: Beyond the Rule of Law Template

A common position adopted by the international community is that establishing the rule of law after violent internal conflict is an essential prerequisite in the transition from war to peace. In practical terms, this often translates into projects and programmes directed at the criminal justice sector. Rarely is rule of law acknowledged in relation to administrative law, public governance and economic management. This has several negative effects, particularly in societies where public mismanagement, bad economic governance and corruption run high, and especially if one considers these issues as constituting a large part of the reason for state ‘failure’. But, a new trend is now vaguely discernible in the practice of the international actors involved in rebuilding war-shattered societies that gives priority to the rule of law in relation to public sector reform. Liberia provides, in this regard, an illustrative example through the agreement between the Transitional National Government of Liberia and donor agencies, where international experts will have co-signing authority over a number of budgetary issues, and where national judicial institutions will be strengthened in order to combat arbitrary governance and corruption.