Our History

The Rule of Law Initiative (ABA ROLI) is a mission driven, non-profit organization with an annual budget of over $30 million. The Rule of Law Initiative's primary funders are the United Agency for International Development (USAID), the Department of State, and the Department of Justice. It also receives funding from foundations, private individuals, law firms and corporations.

The Rule of Law Initiative traces its origins to 1990, with the creation of the ABA's Central European and Eurasian Law Initiative (CEELI) and the opening of its first overseas office in Sofia, Bulgaria in 1991. The ABA launched sister initiatives in Asia in 1998, and in Africa and Latin America and the Caribbean in 2000. In 2003, the ABA launched its Middle East program. These regional programs were recently consolidated into a single entity now known as the ABA Rule of Law Initiative.

The Rule of Law Initiative's overseas work is implemented by experienced legal professionals -- including lawyers, judges, prosecutors, and law professors -- who work in tandem with a staff of host country legal professionals. Together, this team of legal professionals works hand in hand with reformers in both the governmental and nongovernmental sectors.

Today, the Rule of Law Initiative has over 400 professional staff working in the United States and abroad, including a cadre of short and long-term expatriate volunteers who typically spend between three months to two years in the field providing technical assistance. These volunteers, from the United States and elsewhere, have contributed well in excess of $200 million in pro bono technical legal assistance since 1990.

 

The Rule of Law Initiative promotes legal reform efforts in over 40 countries in the following regions:

• Africa
• Asia
• Europe and Eurasia
• Latin America & the Caribbean
• Middle East & North Africa

 

The Rule of Law Initiative concentrates its technical legal assistance efforts in the following substantive areas:

• Anti-Corruption
• Criminal Law Reform and Human Trafficking
• Gender Issues
• Human Rights and Conflict Mitigation
• Judicial Reform
• Legal Education Reform
• Legal Profession Reform

Our Work

The Rule of Law Initiative's work in the field is supported by the Research and Program Development Office, which is comprised of a team of lawyers based in the Initiative's headquarters in Washington, D.C. The Research and Program Development Office develops and implements a series of highly regarded assessment tools, provides in-depth assessments of draft legislation at the request of host country partners, conducts legal research, and produces a variety of papers and resource guides on rule of law issues. To date, the Research and Program Development Office has developed the following tools and assessments: Judicial Reform Index, Legal Profession Reform Index, Prosecutorial Reform Index, Legal Education Reform Index, Human Trafficking Assessment Tool, ICCPR Index and CEDAW Assessment Tool.

 

Examples of projects on which the Rule of Law Initiative works include:

• providing governmental and non-governmental actors with the tools to combat corruption, including developing national anti-corruption action plans, drafting and implementing public integrity standards and freedom-of-information laws, and educating the public about the corrosive impact of corruption;
• training criminal justice professionals, including prosecutors, to more effectively combat crimes such as money laundering, cybercrime and human trafficking;
• assisting both governmental officials and non-governmental organizations to address women's rights issues, including domestic violence and sexual harassment in the workplace;
• increasing awareness of international human rights standards and humanitarian law, and training legal professionals to seek legal redress in the courts;
• increasing judicial independence by improving the competence, autonomy and working environment of judges;
• helping to promote a "rule of law culture" through civic education about the law, and assisting law schools to overhaul their curricula and adopt teaching methods that better meet the needs of tomorrow's legal professionals.
• increasing the independence of the legal profession through training and by strengthening independent bar associations that can serve as advocates for, and protectors of, the rule of law.

 

Core Principles

The ABA Rule of Law Initiative believes that rule of law promotion is the most effective long-term antidote to the most pressing problems facing the world community today, including poverty, economic stagnation, and conflict.

Countries that lack the rule of law very often fail to meet the most basic needs of their populations. In fact, over half of the world's population lives in countries that lack the rule of law, consigning billions of people to lives characterized by a lack of economic opportunity, basic justice, and even physical security. Addressing this global rule of law deficit is not only the most important calling of the world's legal community; it must also become an urgent priority for world leaders, international institutions, and citizens committed to making this a just, peaceful and prosperous world.

 

Core principles that guide the work of the Rule of Law Initiative include:

1. employing a highly consultative approach to the delivery of technical assistance that is responsive to the requests and priorities of the local partners with whom we work;
2. employing a comparative approach in the provision of technical legal assistance, with the U.S. legal system providing just one of several models that host country reformers can draw upon;
3. providing technical assistance and advice that is neutral and apolitical;
4. building local capacity by strengthening institutions in both the governmental and non-governmental sectors;
5. providing "thought leadership" in the field of rule of law promotion that draws on the Rule of Law Initiative's 17 years of experience in overseas rule of law promotion, and the resources and convening power of the ABA and its 413,000 members in the U.S. and abroad.