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Legal pluralism and international development agencies : state building or legal reform
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Faundez, Julio (2010) Legal pluralism and international development agencies : state building or legal reform. Working Paper. Coventry: University of Warwick. Warwick School of Law Research Paper (Number 2010/12).
An open access version can be found in:
Official URL: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1645223
Abstract
This paper welcomes the interest that International Development Agencies (IDAs) have recently shown in legal pluralism and, more specifically, on Non-State Justice Systems (NSJS). Its objective is to remind development practitioners that NSJS are complex institutions that should be approached with great caution. Although formally NSJS are not part of the official state apparatus, they are not entirely outside the prevailing framework of governance. As a consequence, attempts to engage NSJS inevitably risks disturbing finely tuned governance arrangements which are not always easy to uncover or conceptualise using orthodox notions drawn from modern legal, political or economic theory. The materials discussed in this paper, drawn from Latin America and Africa, suggest that any successful engagement with NSJS requires a deep understanding of both local state structures and political processes. It also requires an in-depth understanding of the state and community within which NSJS operate. Indeed, as this paper shows, successful engagement should be seen as part of a continuing process of state building. Unless IDAs are willing to take a wider and more political approach to their involvement with NSJS, they will not achieve meaningful progress in rule of law and governance projects.
Item Type: | Working or Discussion Paper (Working Paper) | ||||
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Divisions: | Faculty of Social Sciences > School of Law | ||||
Series Name: | Warwick School of Law Research Paper | ||||
Publisher: | University of Warwick | ||||
Place of Publication: | Coventry | ||||
Official Date: | 19 April 2010 | ||||
Dates: |
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Number: | Number 2010/12 | ||||
Number of Pages: | 25 | ||||
Institution: | University of Warwick | ||||
Status: | Peer Reviewed | ||||
Publication Status: | Published | ||||
Access rights to Published version: | Open Access (Creative Commons) | ||||
Open Access Version: |
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