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Tech can reinvigorate our commitment to the rule of law
The rule of law is the fundamental building block of civilisation, says the executive vice-president of LexisNexis, who argued that we must bolster our understanding and communication of it using technology.
Jess Feyder
On a recent episode of LawTech Talks, Jerome Doraisamy spoke with Ian McDougall, LexisNexis executive vice-president and general counsel, who is also a founding member of the United Nations Business for the Rule of Law Committee.
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“Without the rule of law, nothing else is possible,” Mr McDougall posited.
He elaborated: “You can have the greatest environmental law or policy, but if you don’t have the rule of law, it’s a piece of paper; it has no effect at all. You can have wonderful human rights legislation in place, but without the rule of law, it doesn’t exist.”
Mr McDougall defined the four key aspects integral to the rule of law:
- Equality before the law – the laws apply to everyone in the same way;
- An independent judiciary – a judiciary free from corruption or political interference;
- Access to the law – having the ability to know what the law is; you cannot be subject to secret laws or retrospective laws;
- Access to remedy – having the ability to get a grievance resolved according to the law.
“No matter who you are in the world, no matter what country you are in, no matter your socioeconomic background, if you do these four things, your country will be better for it,” he explained.
There are very close correlations between the strength of the rule of law and all kinds of different socioeconomic measures that show that the stronger the rule of law is, the better the society is, like per capita GDP and infant mortality rates, he stated.
Advances in technology can play an important role in communicating both the importance of the rule of law and synthesising data to evidence its significance, Mr McDougall supposed.
The legal community often talks about the rule of law to an audience that already agrees with it, and that’s not going to get us very far, he explained; the important thing now is to get the legal community to take the message to a broader audience.
Data analysis and data capture can go towards helping to show that the principles of the rule of law are in everybody’s best interest, he said.
Technology can also aid in the “reinvigoration of some basic messages; that these things have worked, they’re good for society and they lead to prosperity”, and in getting that message out.
Technology, in general, is proving to be “as much of a challenge to the rule of law as a support to the rule of law”, he said. “We must make sure we’re on the right side of that equation.”
There are threats to the rule of law, he outlined; it is “under pressure in different ways, in different places”.
“In parts of the world where there is no democratic structure, for example, it’s very easy for the rule of law to be ignored, abandoned, overridden.
“By the same token, in countries where there is strong democratic history, it’s easy for the rule of law to be overcome by populism,” he explained.
Mr McDougall detailed ways lawyers can help in strengthening the rule of law. “Number one,” he said, “is to remember that the ethical standards we’ve built up over a long time mean something and are there for a reason”.
“There is an increasing trend for legal representatives to be wary about representing unpopular clients.
“Well, the idea behind the ethics of the legal profession is that everybody is entitled to a defence and that everybody is entitled to the best representation that they can get,” he said.
Where this fails, it can lead to the miscarriage of justice, he explained.
We should be making more of these “basic civics messages” around the rule of law, he postulated, “by whatever means we can — the use of technology, the use of our advocacy, however we can, we have to start reminding people”.
