NCJ Number
223221
Date Published
2008
Length
8 pages
Annotation
This chapter emphasizes the role of the United Nations as a major actor involved in developing the interrelated precepts of security and justice (the rule of law in practice).
Abstract
The answer to the question of how to deliver the rule of law in practice will have to wait, until, at least, such a time when various international actors (those powerful and those powerless) will come to terms with their own limitations and see the benefits of acting in concert. Also, acknowledging here that currently there is a disconnection between security and justice, i.e., between their theoretical and practical aspects, one has to emphasize the need to pursue more comprehensive and balanced policy in the name of the international rule of law. The United Nations as a criminal justice provider and educator in the rule of law, can develop a common language of justice not only when there will be more viable avenues of communication between the theory and practice, but also a more open-ended and pluralist discussion among member states and the international criminal justice community at large. In this chapter, the author explains the concepts of the rule of law and transitional justice. He emphasizes that “the rule of law,” although a self-evident concept at the heart of the United Nations’ mission, beyond it may still remain a peripheral concept. The chapter documents how difficult it is to deliver the precepts of the rule of law in practice. References