Correcting Dayton's Oversight: Underpinning Bosnia's Democracy with the Rule of Law

摘要

Dayton's civilian implementation tasks, designed to construct a democratic state in Bosnia and Herzegovina, may be grouped into four strategic categories, or pillars: political reconstruction, economic reconstruction, the return of refugees and displaced persons, and police reform. But Dayton's architects overlooked a critical element in development of the strategy - comprehensive legal reform. The evidence is clear that the rule of law must underpin the construction of democracy, that the path to the rule of law is comprehensive legal reform, and that the police in a formerly authoritarian state cannot be successfully reformed independently from the other components of the criminal justice system. The new High Representative has recently elevated legal reform's priority, but it still lags behind Dayton's 'strategic pillars.'