Building the Rule of Law across the world is an important and vital commitment for the worldwide legal profession. Rule of Law Perspectives From Around the Globe book draws together worldwide International Bar Association symposiums and other papers on the topic to provide a commentary on the subject from leading individuals and practitioners.

What is included in the 'Rule of Law Perspectives From Around the Globe':

Themes covered include: access to justice in developing jurisdictions; corruption; corporate responsibility; cross-border pro bono legal assistance; freedom of expression; extreme situations; and independence of the judiciary and the legal profession.

Foreword - Fernando Pombo, President IBA, 2007-2008
Preface - Francis Neate, former President IBA, 2005-2006
List of Contributors
1. Introduction: a brief history of the Rule of Law - Francis Neate
2. IBA Council's Resolution of September 2005 and accompanying commentary - Francis Neate

CHICAGO - Addresses to the joint IBA/ABA Symposium held in September 2006
3. Rule of Law Opening Remarks - Karen Mathis
4. Opening Speech - Francis Neate
5. The Rule of Law: Striking a Balance in an Era of Terrorism - Mary Robinson
6. Terrorism and the Rule of Law - Rt Hon Lord Peter Goldsmith

MOSCOW - Addresses to the Symposium held in June 2007
7. Rule of Law and Legal Awareness - Valery Zorkin
8. The meaning and importance of the Rule of Law - Francis Neate
9. The Independence of the Judiciary - Judge William Birtles
10. Independence of the Judiciary and the Legal Profession - Geoffrey Vos QC
11. The Role of an Independent Legal Profession in Establishing and Upholding the Rule of Law - a Swedish Perspective - Anne Ramberg

RUSSIA - Address to OSCE meeting in 2007
12. The World Rule of Law Movement and the Moscow City Chamber of Advocates - Genry Reznik

THE SOUTH PACIFIC - Addresses to the Symposium organised by the Law Council of Australia in August 2007
13. Role of the Legal Profession in the Rule of Law - Hon Sir Gerard Brennan AC KBE
14. Judicial Appointments and Judicial Independence - Hon Wayne Martin
15. Independence of the Prosecution - Nicholas Cowdery AM, QC

SINGAPORE - Addresses to the Symposium held in October 2007
16. The Meaning and Importance of the Rule of Law - Professor S. Jayakumar
17. The Rule of Law in a Globalising World - Judge Hitashi Owada

AFRICA
18. The Role of the Legal Profession in Promoting and Protecting the Rule of Law and Independence of the Judiciary (Paper written in 2008) - Sternford Moyo
Address to the IBA's Annual Bar Leaders' Conference held in May 2008
19. How The Nigerian Bar Association Promotes and Defends the Rule of Law in Nigeria - Olisa Agbakoba
20. Tales of Terrorism and Torture - Judge Albie Sachs

LATIN AMERICA
Edited transcript of the simultaneous translation into English of the addresses to the Symposium held in October 2008
21. The Rule of Law: views from Latin America - Jose Maria Sanguinetti
22. The Rule of Law: views from Latin America - Freddie Guevara-Cortez
23. Question and Answer Session
Paper forming the basis of an address to the Symposium held in October 2008
24. The independence of the Judiciary and the Rule of Law - Dr Leonard Despouy

GENERAL
25. The Role of Multinational Corporations in Promoting the Rule of Law - The Perspective from International Business - Andy Prozes
26. The Rule of Law - The Sixth Sir David Williams Lecture, Cambridge, 16 November 2006 - Rt Hon Lord Thomas Bingham
27. Concluding Remarks - Francis Neate
Index

By Francis Neate, Kirkland & Ellis International LLP and a team of expert contributors.

RULING ON OUR LAWS
An appreciation by Phillip Taylor MBE and Elizabeth Taylor of Richmond Green Chambers

"The rule of law, as Francis Neate explains, has emerged prominently into public discussion and although it defies a precise definition, it's of special interest to lawyers, and one to which they should perhaps pay more attention, he suggests.

As General Editor, Neate's 270 page work in 27 chapters is a compilation of academic papers on the rule of law. These papers were delivered primarily at one of several international symposia by a number of distinguished contributors ranging from Lord Bingham and Lord Goldsmith to Valery Zorkin, the first and current Chairman of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation.

Other contributors include Mary Robinson, the former Irish President and Justice Albie Sachs, anti-apartheid campaigner appointed by Nelson Mandela in 1994 to serve on South Africa?s Constitutional Court.

Just reading their brief biographies in the introductory sections of this volume is an interesting exercise in itself to research our concept of the rule of law. The symposia were convened under the auspices of the International Bar Association (IBA) which has been at the forefront promulgating interest in and insights into, the rule of law worldwide.

Basically the rule of law refers to a system of law binding on all - even kings - and acts as a restraint on the powers of the mighty. The laws of Moses are a good example. It encompasses two fundamental principles, namely that those in power should not make the laws and all people (including those in power) should be bound by the laws.

The Rule of Law, said Aristotle in 'The Politics' is preferable to that of any individual.

Since Aristotle - and Socrates and Plato a century before him - the quest for justice under the law has been a recurrent one. The epic struggle to establish and apply the principles of the rule of law has taken place over more than two millennia.

The struggle, which still continues, has been advanced by certain pivotal events like Magna Carta in 1215, the Putney debates at the end of the English Civil war and the American Revolution, which as Neate says: represented a major turning point in the history of the relationship between government and the governed.

Dipping into the content of the book, one discovers any number of interesting gems. For example, check out the chilling reminder of how Hitler circumvented and abused the Rule of Law in Nazi Germany by the simple expedient of the Enabling Act, which was passed without the required two-thirds majority. Communist members, having been arrested, were prevented from voting. Remaining representatives were reminded of the persuasive power of the storm troopers.

The Enabling Act, as a device, meant that Hitler could enact legislation without Parliamentary ratification and therefore without any checks on his legislative power, which in these turbulent and unsettling times begins to sound vaguely familiar - especially the bit about parliamentarians being arrested.

How much legislation has been enacted in the UK during the last decade without parliamentary debate and almost unnoticed by the press or public? One can always dream up excuses for this disquieting situation, the most oft repeated being that debating various measures in parliament is so, well, tedious and time wasting. How easily are hard won liberties eroded in the name of efficiency.

With its global and historical perspectives, Neate's editorship of The Rule of Law is certainly a riveting read and offers authoritative and fantastically useful background to practitioners, students and casual readers alike who wish to delve further into this fascinating and suddenly very topical subject which we will have another electoral ruling on soon.

There are twenty-two contributors to this excellent publication, in addition to the general Editor Francis Neate. Since this is as the Foreword tells us, 'part of the effort... to educate both Lawyers and society of the importance of having robust legal judicial institutions rooted in the foundations of independence, professional conduct and the implacable defence of the rule of law'.

With such a book covering an internationally important subject, the contributors are from Nigeria, Australia, Venezuela, Argentina, Singapore, Zimbabwe, Japan, Spain, Canada, Sweden, Russia, Ireland, South Africa, Uruguay and the United Kingdom. There are some very profound entries, eg Chapter 3, Karen J Mathis, President, American Bar Association said in her rule of law opening remarks 'There are two ways to approach our shrinking planet: bravery or fear. We can find a way to live bravely in this new world, or we can build bunkers and preach isolationism. You are here today to stand for bravery... ' To that we should add it grows with each death of any of our servicemen (of any nation) who died to preserve the rule of law.

In Page 24 Francis Neate when talking of the Summer of 1647 poses the question, that after the Parliamentary Army was winning the Civil War, some of the soldiers began to turn their minds to the question of what they had been fighting for? In the last few weeks alone 40 Commando Royal Marines have lost fourteen men. Are they and their families asking the same question, if not why not? They deserve an answer. Cromwell's soldiers realised fighting alone was not enough, at some stage it has to stop and that?s when the rule of law takes over.

'The Rule of Law Perspectives from Around the Globe' seeks for a better world. One important paper by Justice Albi Sachs, on what it feels like to be a Law Lecturer in Southampton, only to discover that you are considered a Terrorist because you were a member of the ANC. His entry like so many does not make pleasant reading, but read it and other papers you must, if you believe in freedom for all. There are a lot of questions here, but only some answers."

Rob Jerrard