Shifting the Legal Borderlands of Rule of Law Programs: Brazilian Cooperation Agency (ABC) and the Public Defenders' Office in East Timor

Compared to traditional Global North donors, who take a top-down approach to the rule of law promotion, emerging donors from the Global South take an approach of mutual cooperation. Donors from the Global South are more open to accommodating legal pluralism, as well as taking a prolonged approach of assistance. They are willing to build networks with local stakeholders drawing on their post-colonial and development trajectories. Using a case study of Brazilian legal assistance within the Public Defenders’ Office through the ABC in East Timor, the author shows how non-traditional international donors have subverted the traditional model of ‘rule of law’ assistance. This paper bridges the gap between the scholarship on South-South cooperation within development studies and the legal scholarship on law and development- focusing on the rule of law reforms. Using empirical data, the paper demonstrates the distinctive approaches undertaken by the Brazilian international acto compared to traditional Global North donors, who take a top-down approach to the rule of law promotion, while emerging donors from the Global South take an approach of mutual cooperation. Donors from the Global South are more open to accommodating legal pluralism, as well as taking a prolonged approach of assistance. They are willing to build networks with local stakeholders drawing on their post-colonial and development trajectories. Using a case study of Brazilian legal assistance within the Public Defenders’ Office through the ABC in East Timor, the author shows how non-traditional international donors have subverted the traditional model of ‘rule of law’ assistance. This paper bridges the gap between the scholarship on South-South cooperation within development studies and the legal scholarship on law and development- focusing on the rule of law reforms. Using empirical data, the paper demonstrates the distinctive approaches undertaken by the Brazilian international actors within East Timor. Further, it poses questions on the universality of the rule of law reforms advocated by traditional donors by demonstrating the emergence of peripheral interests from the engagement of donors from the Global South.