The Rule of Law at Home and Abroad

The international rule of law movement focuses too often on countries that many of its professionals know less well than their own. As a result, rule of law assistance has suffered from lack of legitimacy, shortage of competence, and insufficient attention to its transnational relevance. But in a globalized age, the rule of law enterprise increasingly blurs traditional boundaries – between north and south, national and international, and capacity-building and implementing. Rule of law problems are too vast, complex and inter-related not to draw upon the experience and expertise of actors from all corners of the globe. But for that to happen, we must begin to think about rule of law reform as something that happens, not only ‘there’ but ‘here’ as well.