Columbia International Affairs Online: Working Papers

CIAO DATE: 02/2009

A Holistic Approach for Promoting the Rule of Law

Josef Bucher

September 2008

Human Rights & Human Welfare (University of Denver)

Abstract

The world has become smaller as a result of globalization tendencies, making the establishment of a global order more important than ever. Nations have become closer. Hence, the intensive relations between countries must be increasingly protected by legal security. In order to stabilise this global order, also intra-state relations must be subjected to the protection of the law. The rule of law has thus become a central element of successful globalisation on two different levels.

The link between these two levels is based on the idea that a country with an intact legal system is more likely to accept the international legal order, and that countries that disrespect the law internally, are less likely to comply with an international legal system.

No single government or group can control the process of globalization. Many players contribute to its force, but no one is capable of controlling it. The process is driven by innumerable individual and collective decisions, but the sum of rational decisions does not necessarily result in a rational direction.