Rule of law and development in Palestine

Abstract

I will try to show how the establishment of the Palestinian Authority as such constituted a breakthrough for the possibility to establish the Rule of Law in Palestine after Oslo; to establish a system substantially different from the Israeli military government of the “areas” that fell under its control in 1967, deemed “occupied territory” by the international community. A systematic change in legal system had been undertaken since then. Those changes are sine qua non for the establishment of Rule of Law system. Those efforts of legal reform, I will argue, may lead to the opposite of what the Rule of Law is. The fact that such a process took place under the Palestinian Authority, while Israeli occupation persisted, is one of the main factors to reaching that outcome.

The risk I will try to shed the light on is that whenever international community supports top – down reforms will end up supporting and consolidating authoritarian practices.