An event in New York City last night featuring United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon underscored the business community’s role in advancing the rule of law worldwide.
LexisNexis, the publisher behind Martindale-Hubbell and Lawyers.Com, presented Ban Ki-Moon, former Irish president Mary Robinson, and former American Bar Association president Laurel Bellows, with a LexisNexis Rule of Law Award.
The awards are a joint initiative between LexisNexis and the Atlantic Council, a non-partisan institution devoted to promoting transatlantic cooperation and international security.
“LexisNexis has made the worldwide promotion of the rule of law its foundation as a business,” said Mike Walsh, CEO, LexisNexis Legal & Professional.
The official announcement from the awards organizers has a neat summary of why the rule of law is good for business:
“Research and common sense dictate that where the rule of law thrives there is improved social well-being, which leads to greater economic growth and prosperity. Conversely, the denial of this basic human right often comes coupled with widespread bribery, corruption, and worse. From a global business perspective, companies cannot properly function in environments where legal norms are not guaranteed to be carried out with impartiality, fairness, or at all.
In its simplest sense the concept of the rule of law–as popularized by 18th century Irish statesman and political philosopher Edmund Burke (pictured)–means ‘law should govern’. More formally, the rule of law is a principle of governance in which all persons, institutions, and entities, public and private, including the State itself, are accountable to laws that are publicly promulgated, equally enforced and independently adjudicated.”
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