Southern Sudan is one of the worst places on earth. As I walked its rutted streets, I experienced firsthand the chaos that defines this place. Daily, property and tribal disputes end in violence. The millions of veterans and refugees from the recently ended war with Northern Sudan are suffering from injury, hunger, and disease. Women cannot feed their children. The hellish life of this bare nation spares nobody.

How could this be, more than three years after the Comprehensive Peace Agreement – brokered by the U.S. – ended a 20-year war with the northern regime and created a semi-autonomous southern government? How does the plight of the south fit into America’s foreign policy after President Bush’s 2003 proclamation that “freedom is the right of every person and the future of every nation”?

The United States cannot ignore the failures of Southern Sudan any longer. This nation will be a benchmark for the rest of the world to measure America’s true commitment to exporting freedom. As of now, we fail. Despite our proclaimed commitment to southern freedom and our efforts to broker the CPA in 2005, Southern Sudan remains unstable and is one of the poorest nations on the planet. Its people are free, but not as conjured by America’s promise. Immanuel, a businessman from the south, put it best: laws are not practiced, government serves only itself, police are feared more than criminals and overall, he said, “this is a terrible type of freedom.”

America must intervene, for America’s sake. With long-term efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan, Southern Sudan is one place where the world will notice immediately U.S. efforts and U.S. success.

The key to converting the anarchical freedom of present into that freedom promised by the U.S. is simple. A workable rule of law and a functioning judiciary would force the government to work for the people, prevent internal violence and patronage from hindering all progress, and create a society with democratic tendencies.

But a workable legal system is a long way off. The current judiciary in Southern Sudan is laughable, a maze of dishonest confusion. The CPA was supposed to abolish northern Sharia law in the south, but the many northern judges yet to be removed from office in the south continue to practice this Muslim law in their courtroom. Meanwhile, southern lawyers are trying to practice by the new laws of their congress. Not that this conflict matters; corruption, many in Southern Sudan tell me, is the only true law that presides there. Handing a judge a wad of cash suffices to win in court.

With such pervasive corruption and confusion, the practical benefits of cleaning up the judiciary are many. Food in Southern Sudan, for example, is prohibitively expensive because it is largely imported and government officials exact bribes on imports amounting to 200 percent of the worth of any particular good. As a result, the south starves. If courts and the law were effective, this corruption could be halted and food prices would drop.

Efforts to abolish the corruption will not come from the government of Southern Sudan. A large majority of their limited budget funds military priorities, and there is little incentive to invest the remainder in a legal system that will check their illicit actions. This is why the U.S. needs to pick up the slack and live up to its promises. We must train more judges, build more courthouses, fund more internal and external prosecutors, publish and publicize the laws and ensure citizens know their rights.

When Southern Sudan’s judiciary is the structural check it is intended to be, citizens will have a venue to combat government corruption and realign priorities. Establishing a freedom led by law will provide the south and its people with an avenue other than violence to resolve disputes and aggressions, leading the country to the path of development, rather than war.

Such progress would be nearly as good for the U.S. as for Southern Sudan. A democratic and free south could mend America’s reputation in the world, demonstrate that our words have meaning outside of the military sphere, and strengthen our influence in the hotbed of Northern Africa.

Matthew Warner of Holden is studying for degrees from the Columbia Law School and the London School of Economics.