Justice: what we need in a post-2015 world.

• Author: Gurd, Tracey
• Position: Report

"Look around us", instructed the village chief in Small Sefadu, a tiny community in the eastern reaches of Sierra Leone and home to some of the country's biggest diamond mines. Together we survey the scene: a cratered dirt road is punctuated by burned-out houses, which is a signature reminder of the marauding rebels who took over the town during Sierra Leone's 11-year civil war. Teenage boys, some of them former child soldiers, loiter listlessly on a veranda across the road. None have a job. No street lights and no other services exist. "This is the country's breadbasket--the diamonds come from here--but we get no benefit", the chief tells me. "Do you think the law can help us?"

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At the time, I had no answer for him. The country's legal system had been destroyed by the war and less than 200 lawyers serviced the country's population of 5.5 million--most were based in Freetown, the capital, which was far from Small Sefadu. Consequently, the rule of law and its ability to address development inequities seemed remote. But the chief knew that something was seriously amiss: while the nearby mines flourished, his community languished. At least to him, the stabilizing force of the law was needed to mediate between poverty and power.

I was reminded of the village chief and his community again this September as I listened to the speeches by presidents and ministers at the United Nations General Assembly. As world leaders came together to declare their joint commitment to the rule of law at the main thematic session of the General Assembly, they made a specific link with development. The rule of law and development, they agreed, were "strongly interrelated and mutually reinforcing". The advancement of the rule of law "is essential for sustained and inclusive growth, sustainable development, the eradication of poverty and hunger and the full realization of human rights and fundamental freedoms, including the right to development". The leaders were "convinced that this interrelationship should be considered in the post-2015 international development agenda". (1)

Historically, however, global decision makers neglected the rule of law when deciding on development policy. Indeed, the rule of law is notably missing from the biggest global agreement designed to end extreme poverty and promote development: the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which will draw to a close in 2015. (2) The MDGs, while successful in many ways, have failed to live up to some of the key hopes expressed in the United Nations Millennium Declaration (2000),3 the seminal UN text from which the goals emerged. The Declaration saw the "central challenge" for the world as ensuring that "globalization becomes a...