Can Might Make Rights?
Building the Rule of Law after Military Interventions

This book looks at the difficulty in creating 'the rule of law' in post-conflict societies.

Jane Stromseth (Author), David Wippman (Author), Rosa Brooks (Author)

9780521860895, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 2 October 2006

428 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 2.7 cm, 0.8 kg

"...Can Might Make Rights, a project of the American Society of International Law, is the latest of several recent texts seeking to draw lessons out of the international community’s involvement in reconstruction efforts and is notable for its focus on such efforts as they have taken place, and are currently taking place, in the specific context of post-intervention environments...Can Might Make Rights should become part of the personal professional library of any individual involved in the planning and execution of or support to reconstruction efforts...an optimistic book, albeit also a realistic one...succeeds in being a very valuable addition to the ongoing conversation. It is a conversation that will continue by necessity, and will, one hopes, include practitioner’s handbooks that continue an interdisciplinary, interagency, and multinational approach even as they write for their specific audiences...In Can Might Make Rights, these scholars do an excellent job advancing the dialogue.
--CDR R. James Orr, JAGC, USN, Deputy Legal Advisor to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s Headquarters, Supreme Allied Command Transformation in Norfolk, Virginia, International Judicial Monitor

This book looks at why it's so difficult to create 'the rule of law' in post-conflict societies such as Iraq and Afghanistan, and offers critical insights into how policy-makers and field-workers can improve future rule of law efforts. A must-read for policy-makers, field-workers, journalists and students trying to make sense of the international community's problems in Iraq and elsewhere, this book shows how a narrow focus on building institutions such as courts and legislatures misses the more complex cultural issues that affect societal commitment to the values associated with the rule of law. The authors place the rule of law in context, showing the interconnectedness between the rule of law and other post-conflict priorities, such as reestablishing security. The authors outline a pragmatic, synergistic approach to the rule of law which promises to reinvigorate debates about transitions to democracy and post-conflict reconstruction.

1. The new imperialism?
2. Interventions and international law: the impact of legality and legitimacy on building the rule of law
3. The elusive rule of law
4. Blueprints for post-conflict governance and their impact on the rule of law
5. Security as sine qua non
6. The challenge of long-term justice reform
7. Moving forward by looking backward? Accountability for atrocities and strengthening the rule of law
8. Creating rule of law cultures
9. Strengthening efforts to lay the groundwork for the rule of law: institutions and resources
10. Conclusion.

Subject Areas: International humanitarian law [LBBS]