Peace Operations and the Need to Prioritize the Rule of Law through Legal System Reform: Lessons from Somalia and Bosnia

Abstract

Today it seems everyone in the international community who has spent anywhere from two weeks to two years to examine legal system reform in either Somalia or Bosnia has figured it out. Unfortunately, most policymakers in today's real-world peace operations have not figured out how to incorporate the connection between genuine peace and legal system reform in their priority plans for implementing peace operations. It is essential that legal system reform be prioritized in the planning and implementation of peace operations because peace will be unsustainable and no other intervention efforts will succeed without rule of law through legal system reform. An examination of the issue is instructive through the perspectives of two landmark peace operations – Somalia and Bosnia.