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I would like to explore a new rule of law with you. A funny one. One that could confront you in the future (but you won’t know that until that future is there).

As a young child growing up in the Caribbean I enjoyed the benefits of the rule of law without any consciousness or awareness of its existence.  I enjoyed all the joys and happiness of a young boy and was able to roam freely much of the time without any care or worry about my safety and well-being. I had a sense of always feeling safe except, for the occasional sting of a bee or wasp, or being bitten by an eel or pricked by the thorns of a sea urchin on the rugged sea bed of a volcanic island.

Recognizing that legal aid “is an essential element of a fair, humane and efficient criminal justice system that is based on the rule of law,” the United Nations Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice adopted the first international instrument on legal aid on April 27, 2012. The Principles and Guidelines on Access to Legal Aid in Criminal Justice Systems (“Principles and Guidelines”) aim to ensure that states adopt measures and establish systems that provide persons accused of crimes with prompt and effective legal aid services.

Last summer I addressed the World Justice Forum on the importance of effective environmental governance; this was part of a robust conversation about the rule of law and its role in governance.  This conversation has been steadily gaining momentum over the last year and has led to an explicit recognition of the core elements of effective environmental governance, as well as growing momentum for initiatives to enhance cooperation to strengthen environmental governance in countries around the world.

Disappointed by the paucity of open and free discussion at the World Justice Forum in Barcelona last year, I greatly welcome this WJP blog and its online rule-of-law community. Discourse on the rule of law is absolutely vital if answers are to be found to the pressing conundrum of how to properly spread and strengthen the rule of law. Furthermore, it is essential that that discourse take place both within the rule-of-law industry itself and between the law and multi-disciplinary, civil society.

Polaris Project Japan has been working to help victims of sex trafficking in Japan for the past eight years. The people served are primarily women and children, both foreign and Japanese nationals. While there are laws on the books regulating labor conditions, preventing child abuse, and prohibiting prostitution (although its definition is extremely narrow), Japan does not yet have laws to tackle this new type of slavery. Oftentimes, the victims are arrested for breaking prostitution laws or overstaying work visas.

In my corner of the bush, the term ‘rule of law’ is acquiring popular coinage. Like its predecessors, “human rights and democracy”, “corruption and good governance” and “transparency and accountability”, “rule of law” is now the new fashion phrase taken from a foreign language. I haven’t heard the term translated and used in more than a couple of the 140 odd local languages in daily use in the region.  Perhaps its mystique, power and appeal are locked in its un-translated foreignness.

Rule of law is, at its core, founded in respect of our fellow human beings.

On June 18 of 2012 the Plurinational Constitutional Tribunal (TCP) in Bolivia issued a ruling[i] which many had hoped would resolve an ongoing situation of violent social conflict which has questioned the State’s position on the rights of indigenous peoples for close to a decade.  The issue under debate is the construction of a road through the indigenous territory known as the Isiboro Sécure Indigenous Territory and National Park –TIPNIS, inhabited since before the Spanish colonization by the Chimán, Yuracaré and Mojeño-Trinitario indigeno

Cyber space is the domain generated from the interconnection between computers and telecommunication networks in order to store, modify, and exchange data via networked systems and associated physical infrastructures without regard to physical geography. Therefore, its security largely depends on the data and the ICTs’ security.

PILnet has been working to build public interest law in China for almost ten years. It’s been a fascinating period of our history, one that has taught us much about the virtues of patience and unhurried determination. As we’ve learned, things can move slowly in China, and public interest work in China can move very slowly indeed.

The Constitution of India is the longest written constitution of any sovereign state in the world. In spite of the verbosity of its constitution, that sovereign state is home to the world’s largest number of illiterate persons (United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Report 2011). Despite some recent economic advances, this state presents a Greek tragedy of stone-hearted indifference to arguably the largest number of disadvantaged people in a country.

On 17-20 June 2012, the World Congress on Justice, Governance and Law for Environmental Sustainability took place in Brazil. The Congress was organized by the Secretariat of the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) under the guidance of its Executive Director, Mr. Achim Steiner, and Mr. Bakary Kante, Director of the Division of Environmental Law and Conventions, with the support of local co-hosts. A High Level International Advisory Committee and an Executive Steering Committee were also part of the governance structure.

Event Title: 2011 Global Report on Refugee Trends  Location: National Press Club Date: 20 June 2012 Organization: UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) Speakers: Khaled Hosseini, Author, UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador 

Relying on strong and longstanding partnerships with local organizations, The World Justice Project convened a taskforce of Tunisian leaders from business, government and civil society in Tunis on May 28, 2012, to assess rule of law opportunities and challenges facing Tunisia during the ongoing reform process.

Bernama- Malaysian National News Agency

Although much of Latin America is currently experiencing a period of economic growth and political stability, Central America is in the midst of a security crisis which threatens to undermine governance and the rule of law.  Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras, whose boundaries form the region’s “Northern Triangle”, have become the epicenter of violent youth gang activity.  While the gangs are a major source of violence, other factors driving crime include drug trafficking (Central America is the main corridor for drugs moving from South America to Mexico before reaching the U.S.

Throughout the developing and post-Soviet world, some four billion people are forced to live and work outside the law. No matter how enterprising or talented they might be, the rules of the game are stacked against them: in too many countries, the laws and institutions for formalizing property and businesses are so burdensome, costly, discriminatory and just plain bad that most people are forced to operate in the shadows of the law.