The rule of law is sometimes expressed as ‘no person is above the law'. A more comprehensive description of the concept has been elusive for generations of scholars, lawyers and judges. What does the phrase mean? More specifically, what does the rule of law mean in the context of 21st century issues and challenges?

Professor Robert A Stein, Justice Richard J Goldstone and CEELI Institute Founder Homer Moyer are the distinguished editors and authors of the second edition of The Rule of Law in the 21st Century, published in association with the International Bar Association. Joining Stein, Goldstone and Moyer is an array of internationally distinguished leaders of the legal profession from North America, Europe, Africa and the Middle East to explore the meaning of the rule of law today in a variety of circumstances.

The book examines the concept of the rule of law from a variety of perspectives, beginning with the basic principles and all-important definitional issue of what the term "rule of law" means, and includes fully updated chapters covering the independence of the judiciary and the internationalisation of the rule of law.

The second edition also contains several new chapters, including:

War crimes and genocide: ultimate violations of the rule of law;
Addressing the problem of corruption that threatens the rule of law;
The rule of law and inequality of women in the US judiciary;
Thirty years of rule of law learning; and
Chapters describing law reform programmes that have strengthened the rule of law around the world in recent decades.
The rule of law is humankind's best hope for freedom and justice. The second edition of The Rule of Law in the 21st Century gives us a better understanding of this important concept in the world today.

Essam Al Tamimi
Chairman, Al Tamimi & Company
[email protected]
https://www.linkedin.com/in/essam-al-tamimi-475b2a32/

Essam Al Tamimi established Al Tamimi & Company in 1989. As chairman of the firm, Essam has over 34 years' experience in litigation and arbitration in the UAE and the GCC countries, covering almost all fields of law, both private and public law.
Essam received the Lifetime Achievement Award for outstanding contribution to the Gulf Legal Market, as well as receiving the Lifetime Achievement Award from Chambers and Partners in 2019. He has assisted federal and local governments in drafting laws and regulations relating to the Telecommunications Law Authority, Dubai Internet and Media City. He supported the Dubai Chamber of Commerce & Industry in drafting the Federal Industrial Law and implanting regulations. He also contributed to drafting of the relevant laws for establishing several Free Zones in the UAE and assisted the Dubai International Financial Centre Authority in drafting a number of new laws and regulations. In addition to drafting laws, Essam is a regular speaker on Middle Eastern laws and regulations and an expert on the rule of law.
Al Tamimi & Company is now the largest law firm in the Middle East with 17 offices in nine countries and 810 employees. Essam is actively involved in the development of arbitration laws and the training and development of arbitration across the region.

Elizabeth A Andersen
Executive director, World Justice Project
[email protected]
https://www.linkedin.com/in/elizabeth-andersen-b6352ba/

Elizabeth A Andersen is executive director of the World Justice Project, leading its global efforts to advance the rule of law through data collection and analysis, research and support for a worldwide stakeholder network. She has more than 25 years of experience in the international legal arena, having served previously as director of the American Bar Association Rule of Law Initiative (ABA ROLI) and its Europe and Eurasia Division (previously known as the Central European and Eurasian Law Initiative or ABA CEELI), as executive director of the American Society of International Law (ASIL), and as executive director of Human Rights Watch's Europe and Central Asia Division. Elizabeth is an expert on international human rights law and rule of law development, she has published widely on topics in these fields, and her work has been recognised with a number of awards, including the ASIL Prominent Woman in International Law Award.

Kathryn Cameron Atkinson
Member and chair, Miller & Chevalier
[email protected]
https://www.linkedin.com/in/kathryncameronatkinson/

Kathryn Cameron Atkinson is the chair of Miller & Chevalier. Her practice focuses on international corporate compliance and investigations, in particular, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) and international anti-corruption and anti-money laundering laws, and corporate governance. She has twice been selected as a government-appointed Independent Compliance Monitor pursuant to FCPA-related Department of Justice and Securities and Exchange Commission resolutions involving KBR, Inc and ZimmerBiomet, Inc, and often represents corporations investigating and remediating compliance failures. Recognised by Chambers Global (Band 1, USA) as a "leading figure in the world of FCPA compliance", Kathryn was named in Global Investigation Review's inaugural "Women in Investigations" (2015) and "Top FCPA Practitioners" lists (2021), and Latinvex's "Latin America's Top 100 Female Lawyers: FCPA and Fraud" (2017–2021), among others. A frequent speaker and author on anti-corruption and compliance topics, she has served as faculty in the CEELI Institute's Investigating and Prosecuting Official Corruption training.

Mark S Ellis
Executive director, International Bar Association
[email protected]
https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-ellis-b5575120a/

As executive director of the International Bar Association (IBA) Mark Ellis leads the foremost international organisation of bar associations, law firms and individual lawyers in the world. Prior to joining the IBA, he spent 10 years as the first executive director of the Central European and Eurasian Law Initiative (CEELI), a project of the American Bar Association (ABA).
Mark served as legal adviser to the Independent International Commission on Kosovo, chaired by Justice Richard J Goldstone and was appointed by OSCE to advise on the creation of Serbia's War Crimes Tribunal. He was actively involved with the Iraqi High Tribunal. In 2015, he was appointed as chair of the UNcreated Advisory Panel on Matters Relating to Defence Counsel of the Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals (previously to the ICTY and ICTR).
Twice a Fulbright Scholar at the Economic Institute in Zagreb, Croatia, he earned his JD and BS (Economics) degrees from Florida State University and his PhD in Law from King's College, London. A frequent speaker and media commentator on international legal issues, Mark has published extensively in the areas of international humanitarian law, war crimes tribunals, and the development of the rule of law.

Richard J Goldstone
Retired justice of the Constitutional Court of South Africa
[email protected]

Richard J Goldstone served as a Justice of the South African Constitutional Court from 1994 to 2004. He was the first Chief Prosecutor of the UN International Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda. Since 2004 he has taught international humanitarian law in a number of leading law schools in the United States and Europe. In 2020 he chaired the International Expert Review of the International Criminal Court appointed by the Assembly of States Parties. He is an international honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and of the New York City Bar. He is an honorary bencher of the Inner Temple, London and an honorary fellow of St John's College, Cambridge.

Mariah A Lindsay
PhD Candidate, Department of Sociology,
University of Wisconsin-Madison
[email protected]
https://www.linkedin.com/in/mariahlindsay/

Mariah A Lindsay is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Sociology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a Kemper Knapp Fellow. Formerly, Mariah served as the Senior Executive Policy Fellow and Coordinator of Programs for the Center for Biotechnology and Global Health Policy at the University of California, Irvine School of Law. She was also a producer on Ms. magazine's podcast, On the Issues with Michele Goodwin. As a Fellow, she co-taught UC Irvine's Reproductive Justice Law Clinic with Professor Michele Goodwin.
Previously, Mariah was a staff attorney at the California Women's Law Center, where she engaged in legal and policy work related to Title IX, reproductive health and rights, and landlordtenant law. Mariah also served as an If/When/How Reproductive Justice Federal Fellow with the National Asian Pacific American Women's Forum in Washington DC.
Mariah earned her Juris Doctor from UC Irvine School of Law in 2018 and her Bachelor of Arts in Political Science, summa cum laude, from California State Polytechnic University, Pomona in 2015.

Michael Maya
Director, International Bar Association
[email protected]
https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-maya-2360a821/

As the director of the International Bar Association's North America office in Washington DC, Michael Maya liaises with the legal profession, US government agencies and international organisations (ie, United Nations, World Bank). Public service initiatives in which he is active include projects on civic education on the rule of law, climate justice, business and human rights, and North Korean human rights. Prior to joining the IBA, he worked with the ABA Central European and Eurasian Law Initiative in Uzbekistan and Russia before returning to the United States to serve as the director of CEELI's programmes in the former Soviet Union and later as CEELI's Deputy Director. In 2007, he helped spearhead the consolidation of the ABA's international development programmes, which together formed the American Bar Association Rule of Law Initiative. As ABA ROLI's deputy director, he helped oversee programmes in 60 countries. During his tenure at the ABA, Michael also played a role in the launch of the World Justice Project and the conception and development of the Rule of Law Index, working alongside its founder, William Neukom. Michael earned a BS from Indiana University and a JD from Cornell University, after which he practised law in New York City.

Homer E Moyer, Jr
Senior counsel, Miller & Chevalier
[email protected]
https://www.linkedin.com/in/homermoyer/

Homer E Moyer is one of America's leading international lawyers and an expert in international anti-corruption law. A political appointee of both political parties, he served as Counsellor to the Secretary and General Counsel of the US Department of Commerce. Homer cofounded and chaired CEELI, a pro bono project in which more than 5,000 lawyers and judges provided technical legal assistance to newly independent, former communist countries. He founded and chairs the CEELI Institute, a rule of law institution and training centre in Prague. A past chair of the International Section of the ABA and Rule of Law Forum of the IBA, he has received GIR and ABA Lifetime Achievement Awards and the Chambers award for Contributions to the Legal Profession. The author of Justice and the Military, a treatise on military law, and The R.A.T. (Real-World Aptitude Test): Preparing Yourself for Leaving Home, Homer is a graduate of Emory University and Yale Law School.

Robert A Stein
Professor of Law, University of
Minnesota Law School
[email protected]
https://www.linkedin.com/in/robert-stein-b5a2bb40/

Robert A Stein is Everett Fraser Professor of Law at the University of Minnesota Law School. From 1994 to 2006, Professor Stein was the executive director and chief operating officer of the American Bar Association. Prior to that he was dean of the University of Minnesota Law School and William S Pattee Professor of Law. Professor Stein has been chair of the International Bar Association Professional and Public Interest Division and co-chair of the IBA Rule of Law Action Group. He is a commissioner in the Uniform Law Commission and has served as President of the ULC. He is a member of the American Law Institute and has served on the ALI Council. He is an internationally recognised scholar in the areas of the rule of law and estate planning.

Allison M Whelan
Sharswood Fellow, University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School; Associate fellow, Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics, University of Pennsylvania
[email protected]
https://www.linkedin.com/in/allison-whelan-jd-ma-21928727/

Allison M Whelan is a Sharswood Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School and an associate fellow at the Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics at the University of Pennsylvania. Allison's research and teaching encompass a broad set of medical, science and social policy issues at the intersection of administrative law, health and FDA law, constitutional law, bioethics, public health preparedness and social justice.
Previously, Allison was an associate at Covington & Burling LLP in Washington DC in the firm's Food, Drug, and Device Practice Group. Allison advised pharmaceutical companies on a variety of regulatory and compliance issues, developing a particular expertise in advising clients that research and develop medical countermeasures.
Allison clerked for the Honorable Guido Calabresi of the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and the Honorable William J Kayatta, Jr of the US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit. She also served as the inaugural senior fellow for the Center for Biotechnology and Global Health Policy at the University of California, Irvine School of Law. Allison graduated from the University of Minnesota Law School, summa cum laude and Order of the Coif. She holds a Master of Arts in Bioethics from the University of Minnesota.