PeaceWatch

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Overcoming Rule of Law "Ad-hoc-cracy"

The rule of law is a fundamental building block of long-term peace. USIP’s International Network to Promote the Rule of Law (INPROL) is fast becoming an essential tool for practitioners working in the field.

INPROL is a consortium of practitioners joined together to promote the rule of law in societies transitioning from war to peace. As an internet-based network, INPROL allows those serving in the field to exchange information with other experienced practitioners, as well as to access relevant documents, best practices, and related materials. The network fosters a holistic and integrated approach by incorporating all the involved professional communities, including, but not limited to, judges, prosecutors, defense attorneys, senior police officials, stability police commanders, corrections officials, legal advisors, monitors, and judicial administrators.

Answers in Real Time

The INPROL website currently provides discussion forums for three communities of practice: general rule of law, senior police commanders, and stability police commanders. Members serving in the field send mission-related queries to expert facilitators who serve each of these communities. Upon receipt of a question, the responsible facilitator mobilizes the network and compiles a consolidated response, incorporating member feedback, as well as the results of relevant research. Members also exchange information and share important developments in the field through INPROL’s discussion forums. Discussions are archived, searchable, and consolidated into a usable body of knowledge on the INPROL website.

USIP facilitates responses for the General Rule of Law Forum, while INPROL partners at the Pearson Peacekeeping Centre in Ottawa, Canada and the Center of Excellence for Stability Police Units in Vicenza, Italy, facilitate the other two communities.

Digital Library

In addition to supporting consultations, INPROL’s website hosts a digital library of documents relating to the rule of law, including laws, assessments, operating plans, handbooks, training materials, and annotated links to other available resources. Searches of the digital library are supported through an extensive taxonomy and a thesaurus-enhanced search engine, ensuring targeted and efficient search results. Country-specific pages are currently being created to support individuals and communities of practice working in these locations. INPROL also contains a job board where members can post and search rule of law job announcements.

Broad Reach

INPROL members represent 415 organizations from 75 countries. Membership is open to those who serve the field in a rule of law capacity, those who have previously served in the field, scholars, and others with relevant expertise. Applicants must be nominated by an INPROL member and can apply online.

Origins

USIP developed INPROL for several reasons. First, in areas where international specialists were working to establish the rule of law, there wasn’t enough institutional knowledge. Moreover, post-conflict areas such as Afghanistan were beset with high rates of turnover from international staff. This turnover produced gaps in institutional memory and knowledge transfer. Reinventing the wheel was commonplace since specialists lacked access to the lessons that their predecessors had already learned. In the worst cases, because it was difficult to access the existing body of knowledge about what does and doesn’t work, many practitioners were, in fact, "reinventing the flat tire."

A second element driving the establishment of INPROL was the need to focus rule of law specialists from various disciplines, including judges, prosecutors, and police, on pressing rule of law challenges faced by societies emerging from conflict.

Furthermore, the international community had no preexisting method to successfully capture lessons learned in the field. "It was totally ad hoc," USIP senior program officer and INPROL codirector Mike Dziedzic explained. "It’s this 'ad-hoc-racy' that INPROL is intended to correct."

Success

In early 2007, former U.S. Supreme Court justice and INPROL Advisory Council member Sandra Day O’Connor made the first posting on INROL’s General Rule of Law forum. "Judges in transitional countries often face immense political and financial pressure to issue corrupt rulings," she wrote. She then asked her colleagues in the virtual community about measures available to safeguard against bribing judges.

The posting elicited a cluster of responses from around the world. A professor of law at Stockholm University stressed the need to examine the role of money laundering in this regard. Posting from Vietnam, the resident director of a grassroots legal development initiative pointed his colleagues to a document on global best practices on the subject. From Islamabad, a specialist in international development law commented that thorough disclosure of judges’ financial conduct is required in his region. And from Washington, D.C., a senior fellow at a legal organization directed fellow INPROL members to a host of links.

Demand for INPROL is growing rapidly. Membership more than doubled from less than 300 at INPROL’s launch to 780 in February 2008. The number of visitors has jumped from 457 to almost 100 per month.