Waging War Through Law the Taliban courts in Afghanistan

>Might the Taliban, with military and technological resources that were greatly inferior to those of western armies, have won the war by means of law? While the international coalition introduced a legal system that was poorly adapted and riddled with corruption, the Taliban set up hundreds of courts in rural areas: by demanding respect for procedural rules, judicial impartiality, and the enforcement of decisions, this system of justice proved itself to be one of the few sources of predictability in the daily lives of the Afghan people. By what means did the Taliban secure the trust of the population? How did they manage to assume the role of regulating social relations? And what were the implications for Afghan society ?

Adam Baczko is a Research Fellow at the CNRS, and is based in CERI. He is the author of La guerre par le droit. Les tribunaux Taliban en Afghanistan (CNRS Éditions, 2021) and the co-author of Syrie. Anatomie d’une guerre civile (CNRS Éditions, 2016).

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