For Immediate Release
November 29, 2006

Contact:
Kara Tershel, (202) 662-9500

WASHINGTON, D.C. - When the United States went to war in Afghanistan and Iraq, the President promised that American military interventions would help promote "the rule of law" in these troubled countries. But there and elsewhere, achieving the rule of law has proven remarkably elusive.

In "Can Might Make Rights? Building the Rule of Law After Military Interventions" (Cambridge University Press, 2006), Georgetown University Law Center Professors Jane Stromseth and Rosa Brooks take on a question that continues to dominate the front pages today: can military interventions pave the way for the rule of law in war-torn societies?

Stromseth, Brooks and co-author David Wippman, a law professor and Vice Provost for International Relations at Cornell University, analyze recent military interventions in societies as varied as Sierra Leone, East Timor, Bosnia, Kosovo, Haiti, Afghanistan and Iraq. Although they conclude that most rule of law promotion efforts have met with only limited success, they argue that efforts to foster the rule of law after military interventions are as important as they are difficult.  Emphasizing the cultural as well as the institutional aspects of the rule of law, the authors explore issues ranging from the reestablishment of security to the role of civilian police, from transitional justice efforts to the linkages between formal law and informal dispute resolution mechanisms.

Ultimately, the authors offer a synergistic approach that concentrates on crucial goals of the rule of law, builds on existing cultural foundations and works for interconnected and systemic reforms. While not a "how-to" manual, "Can Might Make Rights" will be essential reading for both practitioners and scholars interested in rule of law and post-conflict issues. Based in part on field research conducted in Iraq, Sierra Leone, Kosovo, East Timor and elsewhere, the book combines thoughtful analysis of what’s gone wrong in the past with pragmatic suggestions for how to foster the rule of law more effectively in the future.

"Professors Stromseth, Wippman and Brooks have written the most comprehensive and impressive book examining how the rule of law is the foundation of any society’s post-intervention recovery and advancement," said David Scheffer, professor at Northwestern University School of Law and former U.S. Ambassador at Large for War Crimes Issues. "This is a study for the policymaking and academic worlds that brilliantly offers historical perspective, contemporary insight and invaluable guidance for the future."

"Finally a single volume that coherently and intelligently examines the current wave of rule of law efforts in nation building endeavors," noted Deborah Isser, senior rule of law adviser at the United States Institute of Peace. "Its mix of theory, contemporary examples and practical guidance makes it immensely valuable to policymakers, practitioners and students alike."

Professor Jane Stromseth

Stromseth, who is the director of Georgetown Law’s Human Rights Institute and co-director of Georgetown’s joint degree program in law and foreign service, joined the Georgetown Law faculty in 1991. She holds a doctorate in international relations from Oxford University, where she was a Rhodes Scholar, and is a graduate of Yale Law School and Swarthmore College. After law school, she clerked for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor and Judge Louis F. Oberdorfer of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

Stromseth served as director for multilateral and humanitarian affairs at the National Security Council from 1999-2000 and as an attorney-adviser in the Office of the Legal Adviser at the U.S. Department of State from 1989-90. She is the author of "The Origins of Flexible Response: NATO’s Debate Over Strategy in the 1960s" (Macmillan, 1988), and editor of "Accountability for Atrocities: National and International Responses" (Transnational, 2003). Stromseth is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the American Society of International Law. She teaches international law, constitutional law and a seminar on the United Nations and conflict resolution.

 

Professor Rosa Brooks

Brooks, who writes a weekly opinion column for the Los Angeles Times, joined the Georgetown Law full-time faculty this fall after serving as a visiting professor. She holds degrees from Harvard, Oxford and Yale Law School. From 2001-2006, she was an associate professor at the University of Virginia School of Law. In 2000-2001, she was a fellow at the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government and a consultant to the Open Society Institute and to Human Rights Watch.

Brooks worked at the U.S. State Department until 1999, where she was senior adviser to the Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor. Before joining the State Department, she was a lecturer at Yale Law School, where she also served as acting director of Yale’s Schell Center for International Human Rights Law and faculty supervisor of the Lowenstein Human Rights Law Clinic. Her current research focuses on human rights, terrorism and the law of war and post-conflict rule of law issues.

 

About Georgetown University Law Center 

Georgetown University Law Center is one of the world's premier law schools. It has the largest full-time faculty in the nation and is pre-eminent in several areas, including constitutional, international, tax and clinical law. Drawing on its Jesuit heritage, it has a strong tradition of public service and is dedicated to the principle that law is but a means, justice is the end. With this principle in mind, Georgetown Law has built an environment that cultivates an exchange of ideas and the pursuit of academic excellence. It brings together an extraordinarily varied group of teachers, scholars and practitioners, as well as an outstanding student body.

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