Latest Developments

November 2010

A second meeting in the research project The Internationalisation of Rule of Law was held in Amsterdam on 21 - 22 October. At the centre of discussion was the draft manuscript of an edited volume - entitled The Dynamics of the Rule of Law - on which the researchers are working in Phase 1 of this project.

The meeting followed an author's seminar held last November in Berlin to kick start the project. The editors and project leaders are Prof. André Nollkaemper (University of Amsterdam), Randy Peerenboom (Oxford and LaTrobe Universities) and Michael Zürn (Social Science Research Center Berlin).

The Amsterdam meeting focused on the overall structure of the volume. External feedback was provided by invited scholars and practitioners as well as by policy makers from the Dutch ministries of Defense, Justice and Foreign Affairs.

Among the most remarkable preliminary findings, the project leaders point out:

There have been a number of important recent developments in the rule of law field, including greater articulation of rule of law requirements in international law, the rise of new actors and strategies to promote rule of law such as the ICC and civil-military collaborations in Iraq and Afghanistan, and increased attention to legal pluralism, informal law and indigenous institutions.
Although major western powers generally pursue broadly similar goals in promoting rule of law, their internal institutional organization varies significantly.
Donor strategies are becoming attuned to differences in local contexts, as exemplified by the World Bank's new strategies that focus on middle-income countries or various strategies specifically designed for post-conflict situations.

October 2010

The manuscript of the edited volume The Dynamics of the Rule of Law is nearing completion. A conference to present and discuss the various draft chapters will be held in Amsterdam on 21st and 22nd October, 2010. The conference will be attended by the project leaders, most of the authors contributing to the edited volume, HiiL representatives and several external guests.

July 2010

A book proposal has been submitted to CUP, which is considering the project.

February 2010

Editorial comments were sent to all the participating authors. The authors are now working on completing their drafts in accordance with the discussions in Berlin and the editorial comments. The complete manuscript is expected to be presented in a conference that will take place in Amsterdam in October 2010.

December 2009

On 26 - 27 November 2009, an Authors' Seminar was held in Berlin, bringing together the editors and the prospective contributors.

The seminar took place at the Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung (WZB - Social Science Research Center Berlin) and was hosted by Prof. Michael Zürn, one of the three project leaders, who also chaired the meeting together with the two other leaders of this project, Prof. Andre Nollkaemper and Prof. Randy Peerenboom.

The meeting was attended by all those who will contribute a chapter to an edited volume on which work is focused in Phase 1 of this project. Ronald Jansen and Morly Frishman attended this meeting on behalf of HiiL. Short drafts were circulated prior to the meeting, thus allowing more time to be spent during the meeting on discussion rather than presentations, all this with a view to enhancing the edited volume’s overall coherence.