Over the years, significant financial, technical and intellectual resources have been spent in Georgia to transform the legal system and support democracy. A large number of international projects serve to support the rule of law and the formation of relevant state institutions.

Despite such importance, discussion about the complex nature of the rule of law is rare. It falls into a kind of universal, unequivocal and uncontroversial category. However, contrary to popular misconceptions, there are many contradictory and complex considerations associated with the rule of law.

The presented article discusses the concept of the rule of law from a critical perspective, the activities of the rule of law reformists and global legal reform projects, as well as the methods of measuring the rule of law and the features of widespread indexes.

The article emphasizes the need for contextualization, consideration of social, political, and cultural factors when working on the rule of law. This particularly refers to the work of rule of law reformers, who often ignore the local context and try to transform complex political and legal systems with standardized reform packages.

This document has been prepared in the framework of the project "Support the independent and fair judiciary" which is implemented by Social Justice Center with the financial support of the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The contents of this report are the sole responsibility of Social Justice Center. The information and assessments provided in the document do not necessarily reflect the views of the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Georgia.