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The July 2018 Codification and Creation of Community & Customary Laws in the South Pacific and Beyond conference at The Australian National University focused on the proliferation of unofficial community law-making and other initiatives to codify customary laws in the Pacific. The significance of these developments was particularly discussed for conflict management, engaging with legal pluralism, community governance and addressing gender-based violence. Researchers and speakers from government and non-government organisations across the region presented case studies from Papua New Guinea (PNG), New Caledonia, Solomon Islands, Samoa, Fiji and Vanuatu. This In Brief identifies the main themes discussed, while recordings and summary papers are available on the conference website. Several more In Briefs will follow, as will an edited collection of papers. Community law-making and codification are complex and contested phenomena particular to local sociopolitical contexts. Our initial engagement with them at the conference was deliberately broad and exploratory, and intended to help shape a longer-term research agenda. ; AusAID

The concept of violence is highly problematic, with perceptions of what it is varying across time, between cultures and between different groups. Representations of growing violence in the Melanesian countries need to be looked at in the light of the enormous diversity within and between particular countries and their different histories. The broader context of rapid and pervasive change and its impacts on older practices of self-regulation are an important part of understanding the nature of current concerns in the region. State-making in societies lacking traditions of an overarching polity is itself often a violent process. While there are no easy solutions, there is a need to move beyond the focus on symptoms to analysis of the various and complex social, economic and political processes that underlie them. There is also much to be learnt from informal forms of Melanesian conflict resolution and the manner in which these can be articulated with more encompassing formal systems.

Shortcomings in the prevailing discourse of 'failed states' and the practical challenges of international state-building are examined in this article through a detailed case study of the Solomon Islands, a small independent Pacific island country that since mid-2003 has been the subject of a substantial Australian-led regional state-building exercise. The Solomon Islands intervention and the difficulties it has encountered are examined in the larger context of that country's longer history of state-building and the particular challenges posed by its colonial legacies, the nature of its modern political development and the manner of its integration into the global economy.

The archipelagic nation of Solomon Islands in the sw Pacific experienced a debilitating internal conflict between 1998 and 2003. What began as an ethnic conflict evolved into a wider breakdown of law and order that led to the progressive collapse of government, closure of commercial enterprises and threat of national bankruptcy. In mid-2003 the Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands (RAMSI) was mobilised and deployed under the auspices of the Pacific Islands Forum. Led and largely funded by the Australian government, RAMSI sought to restore security and stability to the troubled nation through a combination of policing and law enforcement, institutional strengthening with central government agencies and measures aimed at reviving and growing the national economy. Ten years later and the mission is undergoing drawdown and the transition of its development programs into regular bilateral and multilateral aid programs. While RAMSI has made a substantial contribution to the restoration of security and stability in the aftermath of conflict, many outstanding challenges remain. These include issues of political economy and how these are impacting on the quality of governance, service delivery and nation-building, as well as longstanding structural issues with the formal economy, set against prevailing patterns of population growth and internal migration. These challenges are examined in the context of Solomon Islands socio-economic characteristics and recent history with a view to assessing the country's prospects for enduring stability in the post-RAMSI era.

For many observers, the elections scheduled for late 2001 offered a possible circuit breaker to Solomon Islands' deepening political crisis. Behind the crisis lay four years of ethnic tensions, a de facto coup in June 2000, and a progressive collapse of the economy and, in many places, law and order. The incumbent Sogavare administration had come to power as a result of the coup instigated by an ethnically-based militia group, the Malaitan Eagle Force (MEF), and elements of the paramilitary police field force. As a result, it had little legitimacy in the eyes of many Solomon islanders and, moreover, appeared quite incapable of providing the leadership necessary to restore peace and stability. During its period in office, the economy had gone into free fall, with all major commercial enterprises suspended, and there was growing evidence of systematic conuption and plunder among political leaders, senior officials, and their militant associates. Since the coup, Honiara, the national capital on Guadalcanal, had been under the effective control of bands of anned militants. The police force remained deeply divided and was no longer able or willing to enforce the law. Sadly, the new government formed after the December 2001 elections and led by Sir Allan Kemakeza has not lived up to expectations. It is made up of remnants of the Sogavare administration and includes several high-profile former members of the MEF. While there have been some signs of improvement, including in the critical area of disarmament, the national economy continues to verge on bankruptcy, essential services have ceased in many places, public servants go unpaid, and corruption and lack of security remain serious concerns. The Kernakeza government appears incapable of leading the Solomon Islands out of its current predicament and, in the view of many observers, there is a clear need for far greater engagement by the main regional players, notably Australia and New Zealand.

Papua New Guinea's Sandline affair provides the most dramatic illustration of militarization among the Pacific Island states. Although this was the first resort to mercenaries, there have been other examples of PNG governments hiring private military contractors for assistance in internal security matters. Recent years have seen an increasing reliance on militaristic solutions to crime and other forms of conflict. This trend is partly a response to the well-documented weaknesses of the police and defense forces. Political leaders have shown a marked preference for "tough," "quick-fix" solutions. Reliance on militaristic responses can, at one level, be viewed as a way of compensating for state weakness by relying on its ostensibly strongest aspect. At the same time, the militaristic orientation of government actions in this area cannot be separated from wider societal tolerance of violence as a strategy for resolving conflict. Militaristic solutions have not only failed to resolve problems of order but have often ended up aggravating them. They have also had a debilitating impact on many of the government agencies concerned. Ministerial autonomy allows senior political leaders to initiate and pursue militaristic schemes that have often been little more than vehicles for the advancement of the individual leader's electoral and other interests. Such initiatives in the area of internal security illustrate the reinforcing nexus between political patronage and the weakness of the PNG state.

Shortcomings in the prevailing discourse of 'failed states' and the practical challenges of international state-building are examined in this article through a detailed case study of the Solomon Islands, a small independent Pacific island country that since mid-2003 has been the subject of a substantial Australian-led regional state-building exercise. The Solomon Islands intervention and the difficulties it has encountered are examined in the larger context of that country's longer history of state-building and the particular challenges posed by its colonial legacies, the nature of its modern political development and the manner of its integration into the global economy.

The concept of violence is highly problematic, with perceptions of what it is varying across time, between cultures and between different groups. Representations of growing violence in the Melanesian countries need to be looked at in the light of the enormous diversity within and between particular countries and their different histories. The broader context of rapid and pervasive change and its impacts on older practices of self-regulation are an important part of understanding the nature of current concerns in the region. State-making in societies lacking traditions of an overarching polity is itself often a violent process. While there are no easy solutions, there is a need to move beyond the focus on symptoms to analysis of the various and complex social, economic and political processes that underlie them. There is also much to be learnt from informal forms of Melanesian conflict resolution and the manner in which these can be articulated with more encompassing formal systems.

Papua New Guinea's Sandline affair provides the most dramatic illustration of militarization among the Pacific Island states. Although this was the first resort to mercenaries, there have been other examples of PNG governments hiring private military contractors for assistance in internal security matters. Recent years have seen an increasing reliance on militaristic solutions to crime and other forms of conflict. This trend is partly a response to the well-documented weaknesses of the police and defense forces. Political leaders have shown a marked preference for "tough," "quick-fix" solutions. Reliance on militaristic responses can, at one level, be viewed as a way of compensating for state weakness by relying on its ostensibly strongest aspect. At the same time, the militaristic orientation of government actions in this area cannot be separated from wider societal tolerance of violence as a strategy for resolving conflict. Militaristic solutions have not only failed to resolve problems of order but have often ended up aggravating them. They have also had a debilitating impact on many of the government agencies concerned. Ministerial autonomy allows senior political leaders to initiate and pursue militaristic schemes that have often been little more than vehicles for the advancement of the individual leader's electoral and other interests. Such initiatives in the area of internal security illustrate the reinforcing nexus between political patronage and the weakness of the PNG state.

The archipelagic nation of Solomon Islands in the sw Pacific experienced a debilitating internal conflict between 1998 and 2003. What began as an ethnic conflict evolved into a wider breakdown of law and order that led to the progressive collapse of government, closure of commercial enterprises and threat of national bankruptcy. In mid-2003 the Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands (RAMSI) was mobilised and deployed under the auspices of the Pacific Islands Forum. Led and largely funded by the Australian government, RAMSI sought to restore security and stability to the troubled nation through a combination of policing and law enforcement, institutional strengthening with central government agencies and measures aimed at reviving and growing the national economy. Ten years later and the mission is undergoing drawdown and the transition of its development programs into regular bilateral and multilateral aid programs. While RAMSI has made a substantial contribution to the restoration of security and stability in the aftermath of conflict, many outstanding challenges remain. These include issues of political economy and how these are impacting on the quality of governance, service delivery and nation-building, as well as longstanding structural issues with the formal economy, set against prevailing patterns of population growth and internal migration. These challenges are examined in the context of Solomon Islands socio-economic characteristics and recent history with a view to assessing the country's prospects for enduring stability in the post-RAMSI era.

The archipelagic nation of Solomon Islands in the sw Pacific experienced a debilitating internal conflict between 1998 and 2003. What began as an ethnic conflict evolved into a wider breakdown of law and order that led to the progressive collapse of government, closure of commercial enterprises and threat of national bankruptcy. In mid-2003 the Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands (ramsi) was mobilised and deployed under the auspices of the Pacific Islands Forum. Led and largely funded by the Australian government, ramsi sought to restore security and stability to the troubled nation through a combination of policing and law enforcement, institutional strengthening with central government agencies and measures aimed at reviving and growing the national economy. Ten years later and the mission is undergoing drawdown and the transition of its development programs into regular bilateral and multilateral aid programs. While ramsi has made a substantial contribution to the restoration of security and stability in the aftermath of conflict, many outstanding challenges remain. These include issues of political economy and how these are impacting on the quality of governance, service delivery and nation-building, as well as longstanding structural issues with the formal economy, set against prevailing patterns of population growth and internal migration. These challenges are examined in the context of Solomon Islands socio-economic characteristics and recent history with a view to assessing the country's prospects for enduring stability in the post-ramsi era.