Imperial uses of the rule of law

"With all that has been written about imperialism and colonialism, it is remarkable what scant notice is taken of the role of law tehrein. While theoreticians of Euro-American imperialism profess to recognize the rule of law as keystones of the "civilizing process", its dark side has been neglected. Law has been used to justify, administer, and sanction Western conquest and plunder, resulting in massive global disparities. Thus, we argue, imperial uses - past and present - of the rule of law are behind the current less-than-ideal practices of distributive justice. They are cultural projects that merit explicit theoretical attention because they structurally thwart the use of law to explain the disparity in world wealth".

Ugo Mattei and Laura Nader, "Plunder. When the Rule of Law is Illegal", Blackwell Publishing, 2008, p. 1.

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