© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2013 DOI: 10.1163/15730255-12341253 Arab Law Quarterly 27 (2013) 151-170 brill.com/alq Arab Law Quarterly Palestinian S↑ ulh↑a and the Rule of Law Brian A. Kritz* Research Fellow, Master of Arts Program in Conflict Resolution, Georgetown University, Washington, DC, USA Abstract Palestine’s alternative dispute resolution process, the s↑ ulh↑ a system, is utilized in the vast majority of civil and criminal disputes. Despite the popularity of the s↑ ulh↑ a process, there exists, to date, no international legal assessment of such proceedings. is article assesses Palestinian s↑ ulh↑ a’s adherence to international rule of law standards. Using rule of law theory to assess the fairness, equity, and accessibility of the s↑ ulh↑ a system, this article determines that Palestinian s↑ ulh↑ a proceedings satisfy the major requirements of international rule of law standards. Keywords s↑ ulh↑ a; rule of law (ROL); Palestine; justice; reconciliation; women 1. Introduction In the eyes of the international community, the domestic justice system in Palestine suffers from a lack of credibility. 1 Issues of capacity, unequal access, inequity and inefficiency that plague the formal legal system con- tribute to the perception that Palestine suffers from a lack of adherence to * In 2011-12, the author was a Democracy Fellow and Senior Human Rights and Rule of Law Advisor at USAID. He is a former pro bono legal advisor to the Prosecutor General’s Office for the Republic of Rwanda, and a former criminal prosecutor in California. He has previously published on the topics of international legal protections for women and female children in Rwanda, the rule of law, transitional justice in Darfur, and the knowing and intentional spread of HIV/AIDS and the International Criminal Court. E-mail: bak3@ georgetown.edu. 1 is article focuses on the West Bank and the Galilee, as the areas available for study. As the United States, among others, has declared Hamas to be a designated terrorist orga- nization, there is little relationship between the international legal community and the formal justice system in the Gaza Strip.