"We think that criminal defence is the engine of justice reconstruction," says Natalie Rea, a New York public defender and founder of the project. There have been few problems recruiting lawyers from the west despite security concerns. "Basically, it seems lawyers in America and Britain are quite bored so they are ready for an adventure. We get great people and so we are able to select the best." One of the fundamental principles, she maintains, is that they must take into account the cultural realities of Afghanistan with its long history of traditional laws.

For Casey, one of the main aims is to promote the notion that an accused should have access to a trained defender. There was an existing defence system, but it consisted mainly of people based outside the courts who were available for hire to write out statements for defendants in what is a largely illiterate country. Barristers in London operated in a similar sort of way 200 years ago, he points out.

The current project is one of two aimed at bringing representation to defendants in Afghanistan. A German group, Medica Mondiale, represents women defendants, including those charged with adultery. While such defendants no longer face public stoning as a punishment, men and women who have sex outside marriage are still liable to prosecution and jail terms. Even unmarried young people having consensual sex can face prosecution.

The Afghan lawyers in the team are all handsomely paid by local standards so the project attracts the highest-quality lawyers. One is a woman who was a juvenile court judge in Taliban times, while two are former prosecutors. Despite the risks for western lawyers operating in the country - three UN workers were kidnapped at the end of last year - Casey says he would be happy to return to the country.

Judges and prosecutors throughout Afghanistan have been receptive to the scheme. Judges say the presence of defence lawyers helps to establish the credibility of the criminal justice system at a time when parts of the country are still unsafe or subject to the control of warlords.

"On the whole, the judges are fair," says Casey. "If there is no evidence, they will acquit." But locals expressed incredulity at the notion of a jury system with people plucked from the general public to pass judgment. "They said, 'Aren't you undermining the authority of the judge?'"

The death penalty remains although it will be employed much less frequently and jail sentences handed out by the three-judge panel are on a par with those in British cases. Both prosecution and defence can appeal against a trial verdict.

The old public executions are in the past, however. One Kabul hotelier, a professional athlete, recalls having to wait until executions were finished in the national stadium before he could carry on his training. A boxer friend, he said, would run circuits of the stadium undeterred by bodies hanging from the goalposts at each end.

Because of the problems faced by an impoverished country recovering from 25 years of war, trials are rarely straightforward.

Without an effective national communications and transport system, it is impossible to line up witnesses for a western-style trial. "The police will take the statements and the prosecution will read them out," says Casey. What the new defence lawyers will try to ensure is that defendants have an opportunity to challenge the statements made against them. One of the main issues they face is trying to make sure that hearsay evidence and evidence obtained by illegal searches or following illegal detention are excluded.

The eventual aim of the project is to establish an independent agency of public defenders in Afghanistan. To this end, the ILF has been working with the minister of justice and the Afghan judicial commission. There is one group, however, who will not be able to call on ILF lawyers to plead their case - the many detainees, more than 2,000 in total, who have been held without charge for interrogation by the US authorities at Bagram air base.