Join Gregory Shaffer, Scott K. Ginsburg Professor of International Law at Georgetown University, in conversation with Philippa Webb, Professor of Public International Law, and Pilar Elizalde, Departmental Lecturer in Law and Public Policy, in discussing his co-authored book The Rule of Law under Pressure: A Transnational Challenge.

The book is an edited volume with a substantive introduction by Professor Gregory Shaffer. The book theorises and assesses the relation of international law to rule of law developments and challenges around the world.

The goal of the rule of law is to protect individuals from the arbitrary exercise of power. Democracy and human rights depend on the rule of law. But today the rule of law is under growing threat in the United States and around the world. Trends regarding rule-of-law protections are transnational in scope. They involve shifting norms, institutions, and practices at the local, national, and international levels. This talk will assess how challenges are taking place at the international and national levels, and how these challenges are linked. It examines the ways in which international law and institutions are important for rule-of-law ends, as well as their pathologies, since power also is exercised beyond the state in an interconnected world. Sustaining the rule of law is a never-ending struggle, one that current challenges make particularly daunting.