The Future of Rule of Law: Challenges and Prospects for the Field

The rule of law field has come a long way in the last several decades. Yet, given the diversity of competing definitions and conceptions of rule of law, there remain serious doubts about whether there is such a thing as ‘a rule of law field’. Moreover, despite a growing empirical literature, there remain serious doubts about the relationship, and often the causal direction, between rule of law and the ever-increasing list of goodies with which it associated, including economic growth, poverty reduction, democratization, legal empowerment and human rights. While it is now clear in light of the historical development of legal systems in Euro-America, Asia and some countries in Eastern Europe, Latin America and the Middle East that there is no single path toward the rule of law and that rule of law principles are consistent with a wide variety of institutional arrangements, the implications for policy-makers and those in the rule of law promotion industry are far from clear. The less than spectacular results of rule of law promotion efforts have called into question the role and influence of foreign actors, as well as the assumption that the best way for developing states to achieve rule of law is to base reforms on ‘international best practices’ and the transplantation of Euro- American institutions, values and beliefs. Similarly, while it is clear that legal reforms are integrally related to economic, political and social reforms, and that states lack the resources and capabilities to tackle all problems simultaneously, there continue to be debates about the proper sequencing of reforms, whether sequencing is even possible and if so whether it is desirable.