Legalism Sans Frontiéres?: U.S. Rule-of-Law Aid in the Arab World

Abstract:

Arabs indisputably desire more predictable, responsive, and fair laws, even as the Middle East presents acute challenges to rule-of-law reform. David M. Mednicoff's Carnegie Paper argues that to achieve the most success, the United States should focus less on the performance of courts and concentrate on building a broad social understanding of legal rights and respect for the law's authority. Law school curriculum enhancement, funding of independent local media projects that provide information about law, and collaboration with indigenous human rights groups would help advance these long-term goals of rule-of-law reform.

Legalism Sans Frontiéres? U.S. Rule of Law Aid in the Arab World is the latest paper in the Carnegie Endowment's Rule of Law Series, which provides analyses by experts on rule-of-law development about key questions in the field.