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.