Rule of Law for Whom: Strengthening the Rule of Law as a Solution to Sexual Violence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo
This article suggests that programs designed to strengthen the rule of law in general are unlikely to be effective against the widespread problem of sexual violence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. I argue that while weak rule of law perpetuates sexual violence, only rule of law programs designed specifically with respect to the needs, risks, and cultural norms pertaining to Congolese women can help curb this problem. The article begins with a brief history of conflict in the Great Lakes region of Africa to provide context for a discussion of the scope of sexual violence in the eastern provinces of the DR Congo. It then introduces the notion of "rule of law" before evaluating the ways in which weak rule of law in the eastern DR Congo contributes to the problem of sexual violence. Finally, the article makes four arguments to support the central claim that strengthening the rule of law will be effective against sexual violence only if specifically tailored in the ways noted above. INTRODUCTION 140 I.A BRIEF HISTORY OF CONFLICT IN THE GREAT LAKES REGION 141 II.THE CRISIS OF SEXUAL VIOLENCE 145 A. Scope of the Crisis 145 B. Socio-cultural Implications of Sexual Violence ........ ........ 147 J.D. Candidate, 2011 University of California, Berkeley School of Law; M.T.S., Harvard Divinity School; A.B., University of Missouri. I would like to thank Professor Kate Jastram for valuable guidance and consistent encouragement on this project. My colleagues in the Global Migration Seminar at Berkeley were excellent discussion partners and offered helpful feedback. Kerry Gough, Elizabeth Hawkins Lincoln, Stephen Rosenbaum and Ernesto Verdeja each put a critical eye to various drafts of this paper. Finally, thanks to Alison Mollman and the excellent staff of the Berkeley Journal of Gender, Law & Justice for their keen editing. I welcome comments, questions, corrections and other correspondence about the subject of this article; I can be reached at ryanlincoln@post.harvard.edu. BERKELEY JOURNAL OF GENDER, LAW & JUSTICE 139 BERKELEY JOURNAL OF GENDER, LAW & JUSTICE III.RULE OF LAW IN THE DR CONGO. ...... 149 A. Defining the Rule of Law ...... 149 B. Rule of Law Programs in the DR Congo 151 C. Sexual Violence and the Rule of Law in the DR Congo 153 1. Government Bound by Law......... 154 2. Equality Before the Law 155 3. Law and Order 156 4. Predictable and Efficient Justice 156 5. State Violation of Human Rights 157 6. Rule of Law Institutions ........ 158 IV.CREATING A VIABLE RULE OF LAW SOLUTION 158 A. Limitations of Armed Conflict and Political Efficacy on the Rule of Law ...... 159 B. Rule of Law as Evaluative / Rule of Law as Creative .... ...... 160 C. Gender Issues and the Rule of Law 161 D. Rule of Law Must Take Norms Into Account 164 CONCLUSION 167
The New Imperialism: Violence, Norms and the Rule of Law
In the international sphere, questions about promoting the rule of law and reducing violence have been of increasing urgency since September 11. This article takes on the recent rise in international programs designed to promote the rule of law in transitional and post-conflict societies such as Kosovo, Afghanistan and Iraq. It argues that most such programs have been unsuccessful, in large part because they rest on inadequate and under-theorized conceptions of what constitutes the rule of law. In particular, such programs conflate formalistic aspects of the rule of law with substantive aspects of the rule of law, and incorrectly assume that there is a strong correlation between law, order, and reduced violence. This article asserts that in fact the quantity and type of formal law in a given society has virtually no bearing on the level of orderliness or violence in that society. What Americans call the rule of law is a particular set of cultural commitments that has little to do with formalistic structures, and this means that promoting the rule of law is essentially a project of norm-creation, rather than a project of legal formalism. While the article draws its examples primarily from the international domain and the author's extensive field research in the Balkans, Africa, the Middle East and elsewhere, the article's theoretical insights about the relationship between law and violence are equally applicable to domestic settings. The article closes with suggestions for a research agenda based on these theoretical insights, and some preliminary hypotheses about what further research may reveal.
Subject index
Adoptive immunotherapy A1, A63, A63, A64, A64, A65, A66, A68, A69, A69, A70, A70, A71, A71, A72, A72, A73, A73, A74, A75, A76, A78, A79, A79, A7, A80, A80, A81, A81, A82, A84, A85, A86, A86, A88, A88, A89, A90, A90, A91, A92, A93, A93, A94, A95, A95, A96, A96, A97, A97, A98, A98, A99, A99, A102, A103, A104, A104, A166, A167, A169, A170, A174, A177, A179, A181, A182, A199, A204, A205, A21, A215, A220, A231, A231, A243, A251, A254, A25, A276, A287, A304, A307, A310, A315, A316, A316, A329, A331, A333, A357, A358, A369, A405, A441, A442, A458, A458, A459, A459, A461, A461, A463, A468, A468, A479, A492, A497, A497, A56, A58, A58, A59, A60, A60, A61, 1, 100, 101, 102, 103, 104, 106, 109, 111, 112, 113, 114, 115, 116, 117, 119, 120, 122, 123, 124, 125, 127, 128, 129, 13, 130, 131, 133, 134, 136, 139, 140, 141, 142, 146, 147, 148, 149, 150, 152, 153, 154, 155, 156, 157, 158, 159, 160, 161, 163, 164, 165, 166, 167, 169, 173, 174, 175, 272, 273, 278, 280, 285, 290, 293, 297, 298, 324, 333, 335, 35, 353, 360, 379, 380, 400, 414, 418, 42, 454, 470, 493, 500, 504, 513, 515, 516, 542, 545, 549, 598, 599, 614, 675, 737, 739, 764, 765, 766, 767, 770, 771, 772, 780, 781, 801, 822, 830, 831, 89, 91, 92, 94, 95, 96, 98 Angiogenesis A108, A155, A171, A200, A201, A214, A228, A265, A305, A349, A350, A359, A410, A47, A48, A480, A483, A519, A5, 181, 257, 281, 327, 328, 351, 374, 435, 495, 583, 584, 602, 683, 76, 78, 802, 808, 873, 9 Antibody A7, A73, A81, A86, A91, A8, A99, A9, A104, A108, A108, A109, A109, A111, A115, A119, A126, A128, A130, A135, A138, A141, A144, A151, A153, A159, A160, A163, A164, A164, A171, A172, A175, A176, A2, A187, A193, A193, A195, A195, A198, A199, A20, A209, A212, A225, A229, A230, A23, A233, A233, A235, A239, A239, A240, A242, A244, A244, A245, A245, A246, A247, A247, A24, A250, A256, A260, A261, A266, A267, A268, A269, A273, A275, A286, A288, A292, A293, A296, A299, A300, A307, A3, A308, A31, A318, A324, A35, A334, A334, A336, A338, A339, A342, A343, A344, A344, A346, A346, A351, A351, A353, A356, A360, A361, A363, A368, A369, A370, A371, A372, A372, A373, A374, A376, A377, A378, A378, A379, A379, A380, A380, A388, A391, A399, A399, A41, A402, A410, A410, A411, A412, A414, A417, A418, A419, A419, A420, A422, A422, A423, A426, A427, A428, A428, A430, A431, A432, A434, A434, A435, A446, A454, A455, A459, A463, A465, A468, A468, A469, A474, A481, A483, A50, A486, A487, A491, A502, A502, A504, A507, A507, A508, A510, A511, A512, A512, A516, 12, 122, 133, 141, 151, 16, 167, 17, 174, 181, 182, 184, 185, 188, 195, 203, 210, 215, 218, 227, 231, 237, 243, 250, 253, 261, 262, 265, 267, 268, 281, 282, 287, 288, 3, 305, 313, 315, 317, 318, 323, 325, 34, 342, 348, 369, 377, 378, 38, 384, 385, 387, 393, 394, 395, 399, 401, 402, 403, 404, 405, 406, 407, 41, 412, 421, 428, 429, 438, 439, 442, 443, 450, 453, 469, 472, 476, 478, 480, 483, 486, 499, 5, 501, 51, 519, 531, 55, 550, 552, 557, 561, 562, 569, 571, 572, 573, 576, 578, 586, 587, 590, 594, 603, 605, 607, 612, 615, 616, 617, 618, 619, 621, 622, 626, 629, 630, 631, 632, 633, 634, 635, 647, 653, 665, 666, 67, 670, 683, 684, 686, 687, 690, 693, 696, 697, 698, 699, 702, 703, 704, 711, 713, 714, 715, 718, 721, 722, 725, 726, 727, 745, 757, 760, 766, 772, 776, 780, 781, 785, 793, 804, 808, 81, 812, 814, 820, 842, 843, 846, 851, 852, 853, 856, 858, 860, 861, 869 Antigen presenting cells A67, A79, A80, A92, A95, A96, A99, A99, A101, A102, A102, A108, A108, A111, A129, A139, A160, A166, A177, A178, A183, A191, A191, A213, A220, A221, A245, A254, A256, A262, A266, A275, A314, A322, A327, A328, A35, A335, A345, A359, A359, A360, A361, A364, A366, A368, A369, A371, A372, A403, A409, A411, A411, A418, A422, A433, A449, A48, A468, A471, A472, A4, A50, A495, A502, A506, A513, A514, A515, 108, 128, 130, 153, 157, 160, 166, 167, 168, 169, 170, 181, 182, 188, 217, 235, 263, 271, 290, 291, 299, 310, 311, 349, 360, 362, 404, 418, 421, 431, 438, 453, 510, 526, 538, 540, 55, 553, 575, 601, 602, 603, 605, 610, 611, 612, 615, 617, 618, 672, 682, 685, 686, 695, 703, 724, 748, 78, 780, 787, 790, 8, 81, 828, 842, 849, 862, 864, 868 Autoimmunity A8, A116, A15, A180, A181, A22, A380, A387, A394, A395, A402, A408, A502, A510, 16, 197, 27, 295, 296, 37, 637, 645, 657, 658, 671, 680, 843, 856