Bowden, Charlesworth, & Farrall: The Role of International Law in Rebuilding Societies after Conflict

Brett Bowden (Australian National Univ.), Hilary Charlesworth (Australian National Univ.), & Jeremy Farrall (Australian National Univ.) have published The Role of International Law in Rebuilding Societies after Conflict: Great Expectations (Cambridge Univ. Press 2009). Here's the abstract:

International law can create great expectations in those seeking to rebuild societies that have been torn apart by conflict. For outsiders, international law can mandate or militate against intervention, bolstering or undermining the legitimacy of intervention. International legal principles promise equality, justice and human rights. Yet international law’s promises are difficult to fulfil. This volume of essays investigates the phenomenon of post-conflict state-building and the engagement of international law in this enterprise. It draws together original essays by scholars and practitioners who consider the many roles international law can play in rehabilitating societies after conflict. The essays explore troubled zones across the world, from Afghanistan to Africa’s Great Lakes region, and from Timor-Leste to the Balkans. They identify a range of possibilities for international law in tempering, regulating, legitimating or undermining efforts to rebuild post-conflict societies.

Contents include:

• Brett Bowden, Hilary Charlesworth, & Jeremy Farrall, Introduction
• Outi Korhonen, The 'state-building enterprise': legal doctrine, progress narratives and managerial governance
• Nehal Bhuta, Democratisation, state-building and politics as technology
• Peter G. Danchin, International law, human rights and the transformative occupation of Iraq
• Brett Bowden & Hilary Charlesworth, Defining democracy in international institutions
• William Maley, Democracy and legitimation: challenges in the reconstitution of political processes in Afghanistan
• Jeremy Farrall, Impossible expectations? The UN security council's promotion of the rule of law after conflict
• Laura Grenfell, Legal pluralism and the challenge of building the rule of law in post-conflict states – a case study of Timor-Leste
• Helen Durham, From paper to practice: the role of treaty ratification post-conflict
• Annemarie Devereux, Selective universality? Human rights accountability of the UN in post-conflict operations
• Amy Maguire, Security starts with the law: the role of international law in the protection of women's security post-conflict
• Phil Clark, Grappling in the great lakes: the challenges of international justice in Rwanda, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda
• John Braithwaite, Conclusion: hope and humility for weavers with international law