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Issue 1

The Rule of Law in Transnational Contexts

A part of the Dean Robert G. Storey Rule of Law Lecture Series

The Southwestern Institute for International and Comparative Law (SWIICL) of the Center for American and International Law (CAIL) proudly presents the fourth Dean Robert G. Storey Rule of Law Lecture.

In a period of rising threats to constitutional government within countries and among them, it is a crucial time to study the rule of law in transnational context. This lecture aims to define core concepts, analyze the relation of national and international law and institutions from a rule-of-law perspective in light of these concepts, and assess the extent to which rule-of-law practices are shifting at the domestic and international levels in parallel. Taking these into consideration, Professor Shaffer will then examine the implications of viewing the rule of law in transnational context for conceptual theory, empirical study, and policy response.

This session will feature Professor Gregory Shaffer. Professor Shaffer is Chancellor's Professor of Law and Political Science at the University of California, Irvine.

About the Presenter

Image of Gregory Shaffer

Gregory Shaffer
Chancellor’s Professor of Law and Political Science
University of California, Irvine School of Law

Shaffer is a globally recognized expert on law and globalization, with a specialization in international trade law. His publications include ten books and over one hundred articles and book chapters. He is ranked among the top five most-cited scholars in the United States in the field of international law. The work is cross-disciplinary, theoretical, and empirical, addressing such topics as transnational legal ordering, legal realism, hard and soft law, comparative institutional analysis, public-private networks in international trade, the impact of the rise of China and other emerging economies, and the ways trade and investment law implicate domestic regulation and social and distributive policies. His recent book Emerging Powers and the World Trading System: The Past and Future of International Economic Law won the 2022 Chadwick F. Alger Prize of the International Studies Association.

Professor Shaffer is President of the American Society of International Law. He has served on the Board of Editors of the American Journal of International Law, the Journal of International Economic Law, was a founding member of the AJIL Unbound Committee, is on the board of multiple other journals around the world, and is a Book Series Editor for Hart-Bloomsbury. He also is founding Board member of the Society of International Economic Law, and is founding coordinator of the Law and Society Association Collaborative Research Network on Transnational and Global Legal Ordering.

The Dean Robert G. Storey Lecture Series

The Dean Robert G. Storey Lecture Series was created in honor of CAIL founder, Robert G. Storey, and in recognition of his commitment to the rule of law. Each Storey Lecture will focus on an issue of particular importance in a region of the world with an emphasis on its rule of law implications. Lawyers from around the world are invited to attend all lectures.

The past year has been unprecedented. The global disruption due to COVID-19, coupled with rising nationalism, has raised fundamental questions about the liberal international economic order and even the future of democracy as a desirable political end. For lawyers, the situation has raised fundamental questions about the future of the profession. Further, as rights have come under challenge, the traditional role of lawyers as protectors of rights and the leaders of key institutions essential to shaping legal systems is in question.

The Lectures will feature some of the world’s best lawyers who will address these and other related issues from a regional perspective.

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