CJIL’s Summer 2008 symposium will discuss issues in international law regarding the reconstruction of weak, post-conflict, or failing states. It will analyze the legality of state-building and how it is best accomplished.

Scholarship in this area has focused on when and how intervention with the purpose of state-building is lawful under international law. It touches on topics such as: the legitimacy of transitional administrations, when military intervention is justified, the evolution in international law and understandings of sovereignty created by globalization or recent state-building efforts, and the adoption of international norms and practices to be used in such efforts.

Scholarship has also focused on how state-building is best performed. From a legal perspective, how should the three aspects of state-building—safety and security, stable governance and the promotion and protection of human rights—be carried out? This area includes analysis of policies and international agreements designed to promote economic growth, links between private law and governing institutions, and the role of the international community in creating constitutions. It also includes discussion regarding the establishment of the rule of law, issues in legal reconstruction and ways to prevent corruption.