Rule of Law Commons^™

Resurrecting The Rule Of Law In Liberia, Jim Dube

Maine Law Review

The rule of law is more than a legal concept. It encompasses more than an established set of rules and legal institutions. In the case of Liberia, there can be no rule of law without the commitment of those relatively few people who administer those rules on behalf of a post-conflict state that has endured twenty-five years of civil war and exploitation. This Essay seeks to prove that existing legal architecture and institutions in a post-conflict state matter less to the rule of law than does the character of the people who run the legal system. The Essay does not …

Kenya And The Rule Of Law: The Perspective Of Two Volunteers, Kim Matthews, William H. Coogan

Maine Law Review

Reaction to Kenya’s 2007 national elections was explosive. Riots claimed at least 1000 lives, and upwards of 300,000 people were displaced from their homes. The public lacked faith in both the ballot counting and in the impartiality of dispute resolution by the judiciary. On both counts, public cynicism was justified. No democracy can flourish without the rule of law. In the absence of faith in the rule of law to replace police state oppression, government stability is evanescent. Rule of law is a habit; it grows only through steady erosion of past practices and constant reminders to officials that the …

Measuring The Rule Of Law In India: A Volunteer Lawyer's Experience, Linda D. Mcgill

Maine Law Review

When I set off for New Delhi, India in January 2003 to serve as a volunteer with the International Senior Lawyers Project (ISLP), nation-building was not in my mission statement. After all, India is the world’s largest democratic country, sustaining that status for sixty years from its violent birth by partition through the curtailment of individual freedoms in the 1975 “emergency” to its recent emergence as a “giant” of economic development and intellectual capital. India’s hold on democracy is all the more impressive given the religious and cultural differences among its vast population and the legacy of still-simmering resentments from …

Comparative Perspectives On Specialized Trials For Terrorism, Sudha Setty

Maine Law Review

President Obama has made clear that the United States must grapple with questions of how to detain and try potentially dangerous terrorism suspects in a manner that maximizes national security while adhering to the rule of law. Yet the United States faces a serious quandary in terms of how to prosecute suspects who have been detained at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, that puts at risk the reputation of the United States justice system and its adherence to rule of law. The question of what trial system to use for suspected terrorists requires an historical interrogation of how and to what effect …

Crafting Precedent, Richard C. Chen

Faculty Publications

(with the Hon. Paul J. Watford & Marco Basile)

How does the law of judicial precedent work in practice? That is the question at the heart of The Law of Judicial Precedent, a recent treatise by Bryan Garner and twelve distinguished appellate judges. The treatise sets aside more theoretical and familiar questions about whether and why earlier decisions (especially wrong ones) should bind courts in new cases. Instead, it offers an exhaustive how-to guide for practicing lawyers and judges: how to identify relevant precedents, how to weigh them, and how to interpret them. This Review takes up the treatise on …