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This book addresses a conundrum for the international development community: The law of development cooperation poses major constraints on delivering aid where it is needed most. The existence of a state with an effective government is a basic condition for the transfer of aid, making development cooperation with ´fragile´ nations particularly challenging. The author explores how international organizations like the World Bank have responded by adopting formal and informal rules to engage specifically with countries with weak or no governments. Von Engelhardt provides a critical analysis of the discourse on fragile states and how it has shaped the policy decision-making of international organizations. By demonstrating how perceptions of fragility can have significant consequences both in practice and in law, the work challenges conventional research that dismisses state fragility as a phenomenon beyond law. It also argues that the legal parameters for effective global policy play a crucial role, and offers a fresh approach to a topic that is central to international security and development.

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Chapter 1. Introduction: Fragile states as a phenomenon beyond law
Chapter 2. Fragile States - The Discrepancy between Empirical and Juridical Statehood

1. Disclaimer on Terminology

2. Empirical Grasp on Fragile States

3. Legal Grasp on Fragile States

4. The State in International Law

Chapter 3. Development Cooperation with Fragile States - From Discourse to Action

1. From Discourse to Action

2. The Challenge of Aiding Fragile States

3. An Evolving Response

4. Strategic and Operational Reforms

Chapter 4. The Law of Development Cooperation - Interlude on the Nature of Rules and Substance of Analysis

1. Legal Nature and Effect of Rules in the Law of Development Cooperation

2. Basic Ideas in the Law of Development Cooperation

3. The Substance of the Law of Development Cooperation

Chapter 5. The World Bank´s Rules for Engaging with Fragile States

1. The World Bank and its "Law"

2. Engagement in the Absence of Formal Government Counterparts

3. Engagement in Countries with Weak Capacity

4. Fragilility: An advantage or a disadvantage in dealing with the World Bank

Chapter 6. A Comparison with the African Development Bank, the Asian Development Bank, and the European Union

1. Different Legal Frameworks, Different Starting Points

2. The African Development Bank´s and the Asian Development Bank´s Engagement with Fragile States

3. The European Union´s Development Cooperation with Fragile States

4. Engaging with Fragile States

Chapter 7. Formalizing Fragile States? Of Emerging Patterns and the Potentials and Perils of Regulation

1. Emerging Patterns - State-Building as a Regulatory Theme

2. Potentials and Perils of Regulating Development Cooperation with Fragile States

3. Recommendations for Regulation

Chapter 8. Conclusion: Beyond the field of development cooperation

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Marie von Engelhardt has worked as a researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law in Heidelberg, Germany. Previously, she was a consultant for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Geneva, Switzerland, and for the World Bank in Nairobi, Kenya, and Washington, USA.

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