Rule of Law Commons^™

Law, Lawyers And Sustainable Development: Reflections Of A Fellow Traveler, Muna B. Ndulo

Southern African Journal of Policy and Development

At the national level, the rule of law is necessary to create an environment for providing sustainable livelihoods and eradicating poverty. Poverty often stems from disempowerment, exclusion and discrimination. The rule of law fosters development through strengthening the voices of individuals and communities, by providing access to justice, ensuring due process and establishing remedies for the violation of rights. Security of livelihoods, shelter, tenure and contracts can enable and empower the poor to defend themselves against violations of their rights. Legal empowerment goes beyond the provision of legal remedies and supports better economic opportunities. In order for the rule of …

‘Rule Of Law’ In China: The Confrontation Of Formal Law With Cultural Norms, Larry A. Dimatteo

Cornell International Law Journal

This Article will be one of the first to fully examine the adoption of the first part of China’s long-term quest to enact a grand civil code. It is primarily an examination of the interaction between law and culture— this interaction is most visible when law is transplanted from one legal tradition (Western) into a country of a different legal tradition (Eastern). The General Rules of the Civil Law of the People’s Republic of China took effect on October 1, 2017. This enactment of general principles is the first step in what is expected to take up to five years …

Anarchy, Status Updates, And Utopia, James Grimmelmann

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

Social software has a power problem. Actually, it has two. The first is technical. Unlike the rule of law, the rule of software is simple and brutal: whoever controls the software makes the rules. And if power corrupts, then automatic power corrupts automatically. Facebook can drop you down the memory hole; Paypal can garnish your pay. These sovereigns of software have absolute and dictatorial control over their domains.

Is it possible to create online spaces without technical power? It is not, because of social software’s second power problem. Behind technical power there is also social power. Whenever people come together …