The role of the Bar in the defence and promotion of the rule of law: Lessons for South Sudan

This chapter examines the significant role that the South Sudan Bar Association (‘the Bar’) plays in defending and promoting the rule of law in the country. As a professional body of independent advocates, the Bar is vested with the responsibility for regulating legal practice in the public interest as well as for performing a variety of functions within the country’s jurisdictional orbit. The chapter engages with issues that underpin the Bar’s commitment to the defence and promotion of the rule of law. This entails a critical examination of legal mechanisms that have been hard-pressed in circumstances that, to a large extent, are ill-disposed to the dispensation of justice and, indeed, oblivious to civil and political discourse. Comparatively, the chapter explores the experiences of regional legal frameworks and the parameters of their advocacy in promoting the rule of law and constitutionalism. On this basis, it identifies options for local consideration that hold the potential to aid in the growth of the South Sudanese legal system. The chapter calls in particular for administrative effectiveness in safeguarding the rule of law and enhancing democratic governance in South Sudan.