Frequently Asked Questions About Rule of Law Assistance (And Why Better Answers Matter)

Despite a voluminous ‘lessons learned’ literature, there is much that we do not understand about rule of law assistance. Conceptually it lacks clarity and in practice seems to proceed in the absence of rigorous empirical research and ‘thick’ descriptions of the institutional histories, reform politics and the legal and social cultures of the countries it targets. In 2007 the World Bank committed nearly $23 billion in loans for ‘Law & Justice & Public Administration’ and allocated $424.5 million to ‘Rule of Law’ programs. Other lenders and donors committed billions more. It is alarming to observe this level of spending – and so much national and multilateral policy being formed – on the basis of relatively superficial information