HiiL Law of the Future conference of 2007
Further Conceptualization and Practical Progress on Building Coherent and Effective Rule of Law Programmes and Strategies
On December 18, 2006, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution on ‘the rule of law at the international and national levels’ (A/res/61/39). This is only one of the most recent indications that promotion of the Rule of Law around the world is one of the priorities in global politics, and that people, organizations and states all over the world are stakeholders in this process.
HiiL’s first annual conference was held on 26-27 October 2007 in the Peace Palace in The Hague and constituted the first conference of the ‘Law of the Future’ series. The conference dealt with the topic of internationalisation of the Rule of Law. Law of the Future brought together key experts from academia and practice, the various research groups engaged in HiiL research, together with a wider audience. Around 80 people participated in the conference.
2007’s Keynote Speakers were preeminent authorities on the Rule of Law:
- Tharcisse Karugarama, Minister of Justice of the Republic of Rwanda;
- Joris Voorhoeve, Member of the Dutch Council of State; and
- Claudia Dumas, the Director of the World Justice Project.
Panelists included both practitioners and scholars, including Desmond Fernando, chairman of the Sri Lanka National Commission of Justice; Andrew Arato from the New School for Social Research; Hans Corell, former Legal Counsel of the UN; Christian Ahlun, Executive Director of the International Legal Assistance Consortium; Julio Faundez from the University of Warwick; Erik Jensen from Stanford Law School; and Christina Biebesheimer, the Legal Vice-President of World Bank.
The conference consisted of two plenary sessions, one on 26 and one on 27 October.
On 26 October the plenary session was followed by four parallel workshops on the following topics:
- Workshop 1: The Rule of Law: (Common) Objectives and harmonization of donor policies and activities
- Workshop 2: Creating a rule of law 'market place'
- Workshop 3: How to effectively promote and maintain the Rule of Law?
The conclusions reached in the workshops were presented in the plenary session of 27 October and constituted a basis for further discussion against the background of the question of how to build coherent and mutual reinforcing Rule of Law programmes/ strategies.
More information:
Concept Paper
Full Programme
Summary Report
Extensive Report
