This project investigates which normative standards of governance could be applicable to areas of failing statehood. Modern legitimations of statehood depend on basic notions of human rights that are considered to be minimal standards of civilization. These normative “bottom-line” arguments are increasingly consulted in justifying interventions and reconstruction measurements in failing states. This project reconsiders and unfolds this normative argumentation by confronting it with criteria of input- and output-legitimation.