State-building and post-conflict reconstruction has attracted much attention from legal and political scholarship in the past decade. The book by Matteo Tondini fits well in the line of recently published books on this subject which aim to generalize and conceptualize these developments, but is more specific and takes a dual case-study approach. The focus on post-conflict justice reform and on Afghanistan is understandable considering the author's experience as legal advisor to the ‘Afghanistan Justice Programme’ at the Italian Embassy in Kabul. The Afghanistan case is also attractive since the reconstruction process there had and still has very fascinating specific features, because of the used ‘light footprint’ approach, which consists of ‘bolster[ing] Afghan capacity [...], relying on as limited an international presence and on as many Afghan staff as possible, […], thereby leaving a light expatriate ‘footprint’ (Report of the Secretary-General, Doc A/56/875-S/2002/278 (18 March 2002), paragraph 98).

This focused approach has both benefits and disadvantages. The obvious advantage is that the book presents a detailed and almost complete analysis and overview of the reform of the justice sector in Afghanistan, which undoubtedly will be of high value for readers interested in these areas. This approach, however, has the drawback that the overall reconstruction process in Afghanistan and the reform of the justice sector and reconstruction processes in other States or territories are left out of the study. The author nevertheless manages partly to mitigate this disadvantage by including in the first two substantive chapters more general perspectives on post-conflict peace-building and a limited number of references to case-studies.

Because of its specific focus, the book is relatively short. It totals only 167 pages (103 pages of actual text, 41 pages of endnotes and 43 pages of bibliography and index). The book has a clear and logical organization, and is structured in a coherent set of seven chapters, including the introduction and conclusion. The first two substantive chapters discuss generally post-conflict peace-building and justice reform, while the following three chapters look at the practice of justice reform in Afghanistan.

Tondini's book is premised on the idea that State-building and justice sector reform mainly follows two approaches: a ‘neo-colonial’ or ‘dirigiste’ approach, and a more limited intervention, termed the ‘consent-based’ approach (preface, p xiii). Besides the fact that the notion of a ‘neo-colonial’ approach is erroneous since it refers to an institution which has no legal link with current reconstruction mandates, this categorization is somewhat one-dimensional, in the sense that both approaches are not exclusive, but rather represent the two extremes of post-conflict reform methods which vary according to the level of internationalization and involvement of international actors. Throughout the book, the author however, somewhat artificially, maintains this dichotomy, although the two models are rarely present in practice in a ‘pure’ form. That is also why, for example, the justice reform model used in Afghanistan is a sui generis one, mixing both ‘colonial’ and ‘local ownership’ elements', as the author himself acknowledges (p 4).

Chapters 5 and 6 are the core analytical parts of the book and constitute a real added value to existing literature. These chapters are brought to a close by very interesting ‘assessments’, which should have also been added to the previous chapters to summarize the main findings. Chapter 5 starts with a discussion of the legal reform aspects contained in the Bonn Agreement and the appointment of Italy as ‘lead nation’ for justice reform, identified as the period of the ‘lead nation approach’. The actual reform processes, such as the adoption of the 2004 Constitution and the reforms of the justice system are analysed in detail in the next two sections. Tondini points to the difficulties in reforming the justice system in a mainly ‘supply-driven’ or bilateral approach and correctly concludes that efforts to re-create a sustainable judicial system have been limited due to the lack of coherence between the different programmes and the fact that every parcel of funding received resulted in a separate reform programme (pp 54–56). The ‘lead nation’ approach has resulted in a lack of a clear national plan and common policy, a lack of coordination between national and international actors and a lack of expertise and capacity of the ‘lead nations’ which has be ‘blamed’ for many failures (p 61). On the other hand, one should also not underestimate the results obtained so far. As explained in the book, Italy's involvement has resulted, for example, in the adoption of an Interim Code of Criminal Procedure, essentially aimed at eliminating human rights violations contained in the existing code, and a new Juvenile Code.

Chapter 6 of the book addresses ‘the second phase of judicial reconstruction’, stretching from the 2006 London Conference to the 2008 Donor Pledging Conference in Paris. In general, the second phase can be characterized, at least formally, by the theoretical end of the Bonn transition process and thus the return to full Afghan leadership over the reconstruction process and the increased formal reliance on Afghan local ownership and an attempt to ‘multilateralize’ reconstruction, managed by local authorities (pp 70 ff.) In his assessment, Tondini notes however that Afghan ‘local ownership’ over the justice sector and its reform is far from achieved in practice, mainly due to the Afghan Government's massive dependence on foreign assistance and funding, and the lack of coordination among donors (p 87). The second phase of the judicial reconstruction process, therefore, in effect resulted in a ‘mixed’ regime in which de jure decision-making lies with the Afghan institutions, while de facto decision-making would essentially remain with external actors (p 87–88).

In the concluding chapter, the book offers a summary of the main findings of the previous chapters (pp 91–97) and additional comments as a general conclusion (pp 97–103). The author reiterates that practice shows that external assistance is still channelled principally through bilateral rather than multilateral means. Labelling such assistance as ‘neo-colonialist’ (p 97), however, is going a step too far, as explained above. Tondini concludes that multilateralism as such is more appropriate for the creation of a stronger state apparatus, for the reasons mentioned above in respect of the problems of justice reform in Afghanistan. It should be added though that the choice between bilateralism and multilateralism goes hand in hand with the institutional design of post-conflict reconstruction missions. The choice for a ‘lead nation’ and ‘light footprint’ approach in this case was intentional but is by necessary implication detrimental to multilateralism, and can only function in an environment characterised by a strong transitional administration to coordinate such activity, which was lacking in Afghanistan.

To conclude, the book offers a complete and logical description and analysis of the reform of the justice sector in Afghanistan and is particularly interesting for this sharp focus on justice reform and on Afghanistan. I have no hesitation in recommending the book to anyone interested in either of the two focal points, or to post-conflict reconstruction and State-building in general. I should however add that, with the exception of Chapters 5 and 6, which truly offer a practice-oriented valuable and insightful analysis of justice reform in Afghanistan, the book is essentially descriptive of justice reform in general and of the State-building exercise in Afghanistan specifically, as acknowledged by the author himself (p 95). I should also mention that I regretted the limited references to and discussion of legal perspectives on the reform of the justice sector, such as the mandate of the UN, individual States or coalition of States to engage in such reforms, or the legal obligation to introduce human rights elements. These two thoughts however do not reduce my overall positive appraisal of this book, which constitutes a valuable complement to existing literature on post-conflict reconstruction and State-building.