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New book by DPIR alumnus Geoffrey Swenson examines forces shaping relations between state and non-state justice

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In Contending Orders: Legal Pluralism and the Rule of Law, DPIR alumnus Dr Geoffrey Swenson sheds light on how multiple legal systems within societies influence state-building.

Dr Swenson – Senior Lecturer in International Politics at City, University of London (DPhil in International Relations, 2012) draws directly on his Bapsybanoo Marchioness of Winchester Thesis Prize-winning research for the book, published by Oxford University Press.

In it, he offers strategies to promote the rule of law and good governance wherever legal pluralism – the existence of multiple legal systems within one society – thrives.

Drawing upon insights from Afghanistan and Timor-Leste, two countries with extensive legal pluralism, it illustrates how national and international actors can better engage non-state justice systems to support, or undermine, the development of a democratic state bound by the rule of law.

Dr Swenson said: “Successfully promoting the rule of law after conflict demands far more than addressing the challenges of legal pluralism, but it is nearly impossible without doing so.

“It is not enough to merely recognise that legal pluralism exists. Scholars and policymakers must understand how legal pluralism actually functions.”

Dr Swenson was recently selected as a British Academy Mid-Career Fellow. He is also a Trustee of the British International Studies Association, a Non-Resident Fellow at the Eurasia Group Foundation, and a Term Member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

It is not enough to merely recognise that legal pluralism exists. Scholars and policymakers must understand how legal pluralism actually functions.
Dr Geoffrey Swenson