Custom, contestation and co-operation

This article explores alternatives to prevailing state-centric and legalistic approaches to supporting local security and access to justice. It does so through a case study of an initiative developed by an international NGO in partnership with a group of traditional authorities in Somaliland. The initiative aimed at enhancing local security and access to justice, drawing on customary conflict resolution mechanisms and everyday strategies of self-securing. At the same time, the initiative was shaped by international input and liberal notions of human rights and human security. This approach entailed a renegotiation of both local ordering and international discourse. Drawing on our fieldwork, we examine the initiative as it has evolved since 2003, and discuss what it suggests in terms of prospects for international support to 'non-state' actors. In particular, the article draws attention to the potential of working with everyday local practices to enable social change rather than focusing narrowly on reforming legal systems (whether state or customary)

Comparative law · Economic Justice · Epistemology · General partnership · Human rights · Human security · International law · Law and economics · Legal pluralism · Legal realism · Political science · Politics · Rule of law · Sociology · Transitional justice · Law · Peacebuilding and International Security · Political Conflict and Governance · Politics and Conflicts in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Middle East · Public Administration

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• New narratives of international security governance

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• Hybrid security governance in Africa

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• Whose security? Whose justice? Customary authorities in security and justice interventions in the Horn of Africa

  Open Access•Paul Jackson, Veronica Stratford-Tuke•Conflict Security and Development•2023

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• Hybrid and ‘Everyday’ Political Ordering

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• Introduction to the Special Issue

  Helene Maria Kyed•The Journal of Legal Pluralism…•2011

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• A Pastoral Democracy

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• A Pastoral Democracy

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• Multi-layered justice and security delivery in post-conflict and fragile states

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• Arrangements sécuritaires locaux dans les régions somalies de la Corne de l'Afrique

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• Destruction of State and Society in Somalia

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