The ABA Journal reports, "Leaders in Vienna Seek Consensus; Rate Country Effectiveness of Rule of Law." Here's an extended excerpt:
Even Vienna, a major European capital that counts plenty of diplomatic meetings, treaty conferences and academic gatherings in its history, probably has never seen something quite like the World Justice Forum set to convene this week in the ancient city along the Danube.
That’s because the forum appears to be the first of its kind.
Meetings to discuss the rule of law are nothing new. But what is unique about the World Justice Forum, say its organizers, is that it reaches beyond the legal profession by bringing together representatives of various professional disciplines from regions around the world to seek consensus on how to advance the rule of law as the foundation for societies of equity and opportunity.
Nearly 500 invitees will attend the forum being held Wednesday through Saturday at Vienna’s Austria Center. They will come from at least 95 different countries and represent 15 different disciplines, says William C. Hubbard, who chairs the Commission on the World Justice Project. The attendee list is chock-full of luminaries, including Ireland's former President Mary Robinson, who is now president of Realizing Rights: The Ethical Globalization Initiative; and former Romanian President Emil Constantinescu.
“I don’t know of another gathering with such broad and varied participation that has had the rule of law as its focus,” says Hubbard, a partner at Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough in Columbia, S.C., and incoming chair of the ABA House of Delegates.
“We’re not bringing these people together just to talk,” says Hubbard. The goal is to create multidisciplinary networks and identify projects that can be implemented on the ground in countries around the world. The forum is organized to bring attendees together in small working groups to develop ideas for accomplishing those goals.
The project is a centerpiece of the World Justice Project launched by ABA President William H. Neukom and based on the premise that adherence to certain rule-of-law principles is necessary for a community to offer opportunity and equity to its members through free and fair government.
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