As part of the Graduate Course here at The Judge Advocate General's Legal Center & School, we've had the opportunity to take a number of elective course, and I've spent most of my available credits studying International Law topics.  One of the most interesting (and the last class of the year I need to attend) is my Rule of Law elective.

We've spent our time discussing what 'rule of law' really is and how the United States is working to establish and foster the growth of the rule of law as part of our operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.  As a culminating exercise (i.e. to earn a grade) we were broken into groups to develop a rule of law strategy to support fictional military operations in a handful of countries around the world.  (I'm not going to name those countries; it's just an added precaution to limit taking this out of context -- it's not about the country involved (it is a fictional operation), it's about the exercise of thinking through the issues.  Ultimately, though, you can probably think of four places the United States might be concerned about ...)

Once you realize that there is no good definition of what 'rule of law' is -- and even people who 'do' rule of law disagree about what it means -- you realize just how BIG a job it is to come up with a rule of law plan.  We traditionally (i.e. the last 9 years or so) have focused on the 3 Cs of cops, courts, and corrections.  As part of my group's work, I focused on human rights (an issue I spent a few months thinking about while writing my research paper) and realized that rule of law, to me, is all about building legitimacy. 

A government must be legitimate in the eyes of its people and (it helps) in the eyes of the world.  The most fundamental way to do that is to ensure the respect for human rights that everyone expects, and this transcends the narrow lanes of cops, courts, and corrections.  Building respect for human rights should permeate the mission planning at every level and it will require work outside those three narrow lanes (and probably outside the comfort zone of traditional military operations).  And I think it will require a broad look at our national policy regarding our support for human rights, particularly our stance on the nation's extraterritorial human rights obligations.

I'm hoping the United States continues to 'do good' in the area of human rights and building respect for this developing body of law around the world.  I hope to be part of that process.  And I hope we continue to LEAD in this regard, and not become sidelined by our unwillingness to evaluate our policies and the broad effects they have on our strategic goals.  (And, it should go without saying that these are purely my personal thoughts and do not reflect the policy or position of the United States, the Department of Defense, or the Department of the Army.)