Strong NGOs and Weak States

Milli Lake is Assistant Professor at the International Relations Department at the London School of Economics and Political Science. Her work focuses on human rights, violence and state-building in weak, developing and post-conflict states. With over a decade of experience working on human rights and the rule of law in sub-Saharan Africa, she has worked or consulted in varying capacities for organisations including the International Bar Association, USAID, the World Bank, Save the Children, the Human Rights Center at Berkeley School of Law; and the International Law and Policy Institute. Her research appears in International Organization, Law and Society Review, International Studies Quarterly and a number of other academic journals. She was the recipient of the American Political Science Association Comparative Democratization Section's 2014 'Best Fieldwork' award, and the 2014 University of Washington's Dean's Medal for the Social Sciences.

'In her meticulously researched book, Milli Lake illuminates a difficult topic with both rigor and compassion, questioning many preconceptions about justice and gender based violence in some of the world's most challenged courts.' Kathryn Sikkink, Ryan Family Professor, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, Massachusetts

• 1. Law in unforeseen places; 2. Researching violence and law in South Africa's Western Cape and DR Congo's Eastern provinces; 3. Explaining state-level policy and practice; 4. Local justice institutions and opportunities created by state fragility; 5. Ordinary women in court: socialization and outreach from the ground up; 6. Hard fought victories: assessing the human rights benefits felt by victims of violence in DR Congo; 7. Justice for who? The unintended consequences of hard fought victories; 8. Conclusion: NGOs and state (un)making; Appendix A: decisions in the field; Appendix B: interviews with victims of gender violence; Appendix C: DR Congo's criminal justice system; Appendix D: South Africa's criminal justice system.