From continua to R-trees

We show how to associate an R-tree to the set of cut points of a continuum. If X is a continuum without cut points we show how to associate an R-tree to the set of cut pairs of X.Comment: This is the version published by Algebraic & Geometric Topology on 1 November 200

Understanding and engaging informal justice

Engagement with informal justice systems in developing countries has emerged as a major policy priority for donor nations such as the Netherlands. This interest reflects practical realities. After all, in the developing world, an estimated eighty to ninety per cent of disputes are handled outside the state justice system (Albrecht and Kyed 2010: 1). In countries with weak institutions or that are prone to conflict, informal justice can be particularly prominent because state courts cannot or will not consistently uphold the law. Thus, engagement with informal justice constitutes a vital area of engagement for both domestic and international policymakers seeking to produce tangible changes in how justice is actually experienced. However, it is also an area fraught with risks. This working paper seeks to examine potential engagement by domestic and international actors with local informal justice systems. It consists of three main sections. The first section examines the nature of informal justice. It highlights some common advantages and disadvantages of those systems. Part two examines four donor relevant case studies with high levels of legal pluralism where most disputes are settled through informal mechanisms. The cases span from conflict prone states where the governing authority is actively contested to more consolidated democracies. They are designed to cover a wide array of potential settings, drawing on places of ongoing conflict (Afghanistan) and a polity teetering on the brink of major conflict (South Sudan). The case studies also include an example that enjoys stable and legitimate governance, but a democratic deficit (Rwanda) as well as a democratic state that faces serious economic, political, and judicial challenges (Ghana). The final section offers some general insights based on the examined cases. Most notably, it outlines the major policy options available as well as some key issues to consider

The promise and peril of paralegal aid

Strengthening the rule of law and promoting access to justice in developing countries have been longstanding international policy objectives. However, the standard policy tools, such as technical assistance and material aid, are routinely criticized for failing to achieve their objectives. The rare exception is paralegal aid, which is almost universally lauded by policymakers and scholars as effective in promoting the rule of law and access to justice. This belief, however, rests on a very limited empirical foundation regarding what paralegal programs accomplish and under what theory they operate. This paper critically examines the conventional wisdom surrounding paralegal initiatives through case studies of two successful paralegal programs in post-conflict Timor-Leste that are broadly representative of the type of initiatives commonly implemented in developing countries. These programs did improve access to justice services, bolster choice between dispute resolution forums, and increase local knowledge of progressive norms on human rights and women’s rights. Yet, as this article shows, even successful programs can expect to achieve only incremental gains in promoting the rule of law because advances largely depend on alignment with the priorities of powerful state and non-state actors, donors, program implementers, and paralegals themselves. To date, the literature has not acknowledged these limitations. This article addresses this gap by demonstrating that paralegal aid faces multiple challenges that mean paralegals cannot necessarily transcend or modify deep seated norms and power structures. These issues include principal agent-problems due to the extensive delegation required, internal limitations resulting from paralegals’ limited authority and independence, and external constraints from state and non-state justice actors. Paralegal programs also face program design, implementation, and sustainability challenges. Consequently, scholars, practitioners, and policymakers need to adopt a more balanced view of paralegal aid

'To every landless man, woman and child in England’: Octavia Hill and the preservation movement’

Octavia Hill is increasingly commemorated as a key figure of the heritage movement in Britain. While her contribution to preservation is usually discussed within the institutional history of the National Trust, the chapter seeks to situate Octavia Hill’s ideas about preservation in the context of the broader heritage movement in Britain and Europe, to see both her unique contribution and the commonalities of her ideas with wider trends. It traces her links with other preservation bodies and argues that some of her internal contradictions were also representative of the wider Victorian movement. For instance, although Octavia Hill was in many areas of her work opposed to government intervention, when it came to preservation, she, like the other founders of the Trust and like indeed most preservationists in Britain, firmly believed in the need for a legislative framework. As such her, and the Trust’s wider epistemic community’s, views were also very much in line with trends across Europe. A comparison with the European movement shows that this was not least the case because most preservationist bodies exchanged ideas, memoranda and legislative drafts in order to advance their own institutions and help their neighbours. A closer examination of the transnational exchanges between preservationists, however, also helps to highlight Octavia Hill’s unique place. It is striking that while Octavia Hill had developed an important network interested in housing reform of largely female correspondents, which extended from Boston to St Petersburg, this network hardly overlapped with the networks of international preservationists. While other key figures from the Trust such as Sir Robert Hunter Canon Rawnsley or Gerald Baldwin Brown, were in constant contact with preservationists from Europe, Octavia was not. This can in part be explained by a generally more prominent role of women in preservation in Britain than in Europe. On the Continent, early professionalization of the heritage sector had largely excluded women from places of prominence, while in Britain women rose to public roles by linking concerns in art, religion and philanthropy with the question of preservation. It also reveals that while both housing reform and historic preservation were international concern, they were not as closely linked elsewhere, as they were in Britain through the person of Octavia Hill. Hence while structural reasons in part help to explain why a woman could gain such influence and importance in the preservation movement in Britain, it took the extraordinary woman Octavia Hill was to establish a lasting link between the need for descent living standards and the need for beauty, clean air and history