In the Field: Promoting Rule of Law in Liberia

n Liberia, a major factor behind the country’s 14 year civil war, which ended in 2003, was discontent with the role that state institutions, including the justice system, played to foster the social, political, and economic marginalization of a majority of the country’s population. The task of rebuilding the rule of law therefore must not focus only on formal institutions, but also on local practices and perceptions of justice.

USIP’s Rule of Law Center of Innovation has recently led a program to build rule of law based on this model. The project aims to develop policy options to expand the rule of law and consolidate peace over the next decade in ways that include the role of informal legal systems and local understandings of justice. The initiative draws on USIP’s ongoing research examining interactions between customary and formal legal systems during post-conflict transitions worldwide.

Over the past year, USIP’s Rule of Law Center of Innovation teamed up with Dr. Stephen Lubkemann, an anthropologist at George Washington University, and a team of Liberia researchers to conduct extensive field research in four counties to study how people are resolving their disputes and what perceptions they hold toward different justice forums. In addition, USIP is analyzing the legal framework governing customary law and is working closely with the Liberian Minister of Justice and other policymakers to develop options for justice reform.

"The logistics of field research in remote parts of Liberia are very challenging,” says Deborah Isser, senior program officer in the Rule of Law Program. “But we feel it is essential to introduce an empirical basis to justice reform policy. We are approaching this from both a legal and anthropological perspective. This allows us to make recommendations that take into account the wider social context in which the justice system operates."

Read more about USIP’s Rule of Law Program