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Research Project A3 „Rule of Law and Governance in Areas of Limited Statehood"
Dr. Matthias Koetter
„Understandings of the Rule of Law in Various Legal Systems of the World"
The project examines different understandings of the Rule of Law and their specific normative implications in various legal systems of the world. Brief country reports shall illustrate the different understandings of the Rule of Law in reference to the particular legal and constitutional discourse of each country. Presented side by side, the country reports shall allow for comparison and reveal similarities and dissimilarities. The reports will be complemented by comparative analyses on the Rule of Law within different (legal-) cultural contexts. The country reports as well as the comparative texts will be published online on the internet in a wiki-style format, thus offering the possibility for interested readers to discuss the texts and to participate in their further development. All the texts will be in English.
1. Country Reports
The country reports are the core element of the project. They will be provided by various authors with a distinct insight into the specific legal system. The reports shall be brief and informative (round about 10.000 characters, three pages). In order to manage the inconsistency of the relevant literature and to achieve comparability, it seems reasonable to ensure the structural consistency of the country reports by using the following template:
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Ø Short list of further reading.
The following legal systems will be included in the examination so far:
Legal Cultural Area | Country | Author |
Continental Europe | Germany | Dr. Matthias Koetter |
| France | Dr. Matthias Koetter |
| Italy | N. N. |
Common Law | United Kingdom | Dr. Matthias Koetter |
| United States | N. N. |
Eastern Europe | Russia | Ilja Skrylnikow |
| Poland, Ukraine | N. N. |
| Bosnia-Herzegovina | Ellen Fischer |
| Turkey | N. N. |
Islamic context | Pakistan | Dr. Athar Minallah (t.b.c.) |
| Afghanistan | Hatem Elliesie |
| Egypt | Hatem Elliesie |
| Lebanon | Dr. Cordelia Koch |
| Iran | via Dr. Tilmann Roeder |
Africa / Post-Colonies | Ethiopia | Judit Y. Mengesha, Hatem Elliesie |
| Nigeria | Judit Y. Mengesha |
| Sudan | Hatem Elliesie |
Latin America | Argentina | Prof. Pablo Riberi (t.b.c.) |
| Brazil | Prof. Leonardo Martins (t.b.c.) |
| Bolivia | Aline Hirseland |
Asia | China | Prof. Robert Heuser |
| Japan | N. N. |
2. Additional Texts
The country reports will be complemented by comparative analyses that shall develop further materials from political and cultural sciences (also written in English, round about 30.000 to 40.000 characters or 10-12 pages). The texts may either be cross-country comparisons of legal systems and reports on cultural areas, e.g. "The Rule of Law in Constitutions of Countries with an Islamic cultural background" or "The European Understanding of the Rule of Law". The texts may also compare the development of the idea of Rule of Law form a cultural or philosophical historical perspective.
3. Presentation
Country reports and additional texts will be published online on a wiki-style webpage, which is provided by the Freie Universitaet Berlin(see http://www.cedis.fu-berlin.de/web20/wikis/index.html). Thus, the reports and texts will be easy to find and access, and the wiki format allows for cross-linking the contents and it enables readers to discuss and join in expanding the information, to modify the pages or add completely new ones. At least at the beginning, changes and additions carried out by the readers will be subject to the approval by the administrators of the online-project. At the best, the project will evolve into an expanding forum with content contributed not only by its initiators but by a broader reader/writer community.
Publishing the original contents in a classical format like e.g. in a book is not the plan so far, but may be considered at a later point.
4. Schedule
The texts shall be published online on the internet by the end of 2009.
