Professions without borders : global ethics and the international rule of law

Abstract

The emergence of strong sovereign states after the Treaty of Westphalia turned two of the most cosmopolitan
professions (law and arms) into two of the least cosmopolitan. Sovereign states determined the content of the
law within their borders – including which, if any, ecclesiastical law was to be applied; what form of economic
regulation was adopted; and what, if any, international law applied. Similarly, states sought to ensure that all
military force was at their disposal in national armies. The erosion of sovereignty in a post-Westphalian world
may significantly reverse these processes.

The erosion of sovereignty is likely to have profound consequences for the legal profession and the ethics of
how, and for what ends, it is practised. Lawyers have played a major role in the civilization of sovereign states
through the articulation and institutionalisation of key governance values – starting with the rule of law. An
increasingly global profession must take on similar tasks. The same could be said of the military.

This essay will review the concept of an international rule of law and its relationship to domestic conceptions
and outline the task of building the international rule of law and the role that lawyers can and should play in it.