Law’s rule – Liberia and the rule of law

The Centre for International Governance and Justice and RegNet warmly congratulates PhD scholar Shane Chalmers on the confirmation that his thesis, entitled ‘Law’s rule – Liberia and the rule of law’, has been accepted for the awarding of his PhD.

The basis of Shane’s thesis was the challenge set down by Desmond Manderson in Kangaroo Courts and the Rule of Law: to take seriously the contradiction in the rule of law as its animating condition.

Shane’s examiners described his thesis as both a pleasure to read and ‘a truly interdisciplinary work of scholarship’. Peter Rush commented:

This is an exceptional thesis….Its contribution is not only to the study of the discourses and institutions of the rule of law in Liberia, but also to contemporary theories of law’s rule, of legal pluralism, and of post-conflict studies, as well as to the jurisprudence of law. Its facility with the existing debates in these fields, as well as the politics of rule of law debates in international law and in Liberia, is nothing less than remarkable.

Shane is currently undertaking an Australian Endeavour Postdoctoral Fellowship on ‘The Rule of Law in Transition’. The Fellowship is hosted by the Oñati International Institute for the Sociology of Law in Spain, and Shane plans to spend his time transforming his thesis into a book.