Kabul Legal

Stephens (Government and Foreign Affairs, French ’05)
Photo courtesy of Anne Stephens

Anne Stephens (Government & Foreign Affairs and French ’05) has always relied on a global perspective to analyze and understand the workings of the political world. As an undergraduate at the University, Stephens received a Harrison grant to conduct research at the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Netherlands, and also served as a research assistant for the Miller Center of Public Affairs.

Despite changing her focus from international criminal law to domestic prosecution after her first year at Stanford Law in 2006, Stephens continued to find ways to become involved in international activities. So when a friend and classmate invited her to join a group of four other students on a project to create the first modern law school in Afghanistan, she jumped at the chance.

“The constitution created after the fall of the Taliban in Afghanistan was passed in 2004, but much of the Afghan legal system is still structured around traditional laws,” Stephens said. “As much as 80-90% of the legal disputes, from assaults to property questions, are still settled under an informal system according to tribal and religious traditions, rather than a structured legal process or a formal judicial system.”

According to Stephens, individuals receive their legal education in Afghanistan by obtaining an undergraduate degree in law. Since the education law students receive is based more heavily on the principles of political science and philosophy, however, much of the modernized rule of law system in the country is not properly understood or enforced.

“Under the current curriculum, students learn about the philosophical traditions of law, but they aren’t given the tools necessary to interpret statutory and constitutional law,” Stephens said. “We believe this knowledge is essential in working toward the rebuilding of Afghanistan.”

Focusing their attention on the increasing need for more structured and modern legal education system in Afghanistan, Stephens and the four other law students banded together to draft an introductory textbook on modern Afghan law aimed at educating Afghani law students. In partnership with the American University in Afghanistan, the students hope to help Afghanistan rebuild its legal system by targeting the educational development of young lawyers.

“What we are trying to do is attempt to get more students interested in pursuing careers in law, since there is a shortage of trained practicing lawyers in the country,” Stephens said. The textbook, set to be finalized and professionally reviewed by Afghanistan scholars in March, will be incorporated into the current undergraduate curriculum at the American University of Afghanistan.

“We are trying to make it a very Afghan course, and use examples that are germane to their daily lives,” Stephens said. “But we also want to change the educational process within the classroom from one of rote learning to a dynamic system where students think creatively on their feet, so that students can approach situations like lawyers.”

After the textbook is approved and bound, the group will travel to Kabul in the spring to meet with policymakers, school administrators, and teachers as well as to interact with the current students. As the project progresses, Stephens and her colleagues will be involved in supporting the professor teaching the course around the textbook in the fall of 2008 and drafting a broader law school curriculum as a supplement to the limited undergraduate courses available. The long term goal of the project is to structure a curriculum for a full law program at the American University of Afghanistan, with a complete faculty and set of classes aimed at providing a substantial law education.

“By establishing a good, legal education system, we are trying to provide them with the tools that lawyers can use to interpret laws in a modern society, which can lead to the entrenchment of a lasting system of the rule of law in Afghanistan,” Stephens said.

For further information about this project, Anne Stephens may be reached at .