Who will protect the Rule of Law? | Ian Holloway | TEDxCalgarySalon
The speaker argues that the traditional concept of the rule of law, which relies on national governmental structures, is insufficient for the technological age because global corporations now wield borderless power. The survival of the rule of law depends on augmenting this understanding to involve these multinational corporations as co-guarantors of societal values. The central challenge is determining how to motivate corporations to voluntarily participate in maintaining legal and ethical standards rather than relying solely on antiquated national regulation. ## Speakers & Context - Speaker (Unnamed). - Intends to discuss the rule of law, arguing it must adapt to the technological era. - Acknowledges that the argument that the rule of law depends on multinational corporations "may have startled" the audience. - Suggests the discussion is a challenge to how the audience "reflexively think about the way in which we protect rights in Canada and in the Western world today." ## Theses & Positions - The traditional concept of the rule of law is not compatible with the current technological era. - Without supplementing our understanding of the rule of law, it will become "a toothless tiger" and "a little more than a political slogan." - The survival of the rule of law depends upon the support of big multinational corporations. - The core meaning of the rule of law, in the West, is government accountability—rules and procedures that even popularly elected governments must follow. - The problem is that the modern world means power is "not susceptible to government control." - The great democratic battle of the 21st century is viewed as being about the "corporate franchise," which is as critical as the Democratic franchise. - The gravity of the threat is that the most serious threats to the rule of law are those "that aren't easily susceptible to national control." ## Concepts & Definitions - **Rule of Law:** A system where there are established rules and procedures that governments must follow before exercising power. - **Corporate Franchise:** The right of global corporations to operate and influence across borders, which is considered as critical as the traditional right to vote in the modern era. - **Global Supply Chains:** The mechanism through which modern life is sustained, connecting products to raw materials and manufacturing across multiple continents. ## Mechanisms & Processes - **Government accountability:** Protecting citizens by regulating and controlling the exercise of government power through national courts. - **Global Corporate Influence:** Corporations can exercise influence "directly immediately and across borders in a way that no country can" because they are "alive in multiple countries at once." - **Information Flow:** Information does not instinctively respect national borders, giving global corporations power difficult for national governments to control. - **Animating Corporations:** The goal is to figure out "how do we make corporations want to be part of the solution rather than part of the problem." ## Timeline & Sequence - **1907:** Photograph of the speaker's great-grandmother in rural New Brunswick, representing a "world of constancy" where the rule of law was the "lodestone of that constancy." - **Modern Day:** Characterized by globalization and the inability of national courts to regulate cross-border threats. - **2003:** Release of the documentary film *The Corporation*, which argued that modern business corporations were "inevitably psychopathic." ## Named Entities - **Canada:** Mentioned as a country where the rule of law is considered highly desirable. - **United States:** Mentioned regarding political debates and national legal authority that ends at the American border. - **European Union:** Mentioned as a multilateral entity that cannot exercise direct global influence. - **Walmart:** Cited as an example of a corporation that promoted diversity in the legal profession by setting a diversity standard for suppliers in 2005. - **United States** and **Great Britain:** Mentioned regarding unease about globalization being a dominant political discourse topic. - **American border:** Physical limit where American legal authority ceases to operate. ## Numbers & Data - Date of photograph: **1907**. - Date of Walmart's diversity mandate: **2005**. ## Examples & Cases - **Great-grandmother's life in 1907:** Life was largely local; threats were contained by local courts (e.g., stealing possessions). - **Modern Life Example:** A weekly grocery bill containing vegetables from the United States and Mexico, fruit from the West Indies and Central America, clothes not made in Alberta, and an automobile manufactured by a Korean company. - **Walmart's diversity initiative:** In **2005**, Walmart required all major legal suppliers worldwide to demonstrate a "meaningful commitment to diversity." ## Counterarguments & Caveats - Speaker admits not painting a "pollyannaish view of the corporate culture" given "egregious examples of bad corporate behavior." - Traditional instinct suggests passing laws to regulate global businesses, but this "can only help so much." ## Conclusions & Recommendations - The primary question for society is: "how do we get corporations to accept their role as 21st century Co guarantors of the rule of law." - The issue is framed as a "society question," not purely a "lawyer's question." - Call to action is to collectively answer the question of how to ensure corporate accountability. ## Implications & Consequences - The primary implication is that existing national enforcement mechanisms fail against global, interconnected threats, necessitating corporate buy-in for maintaining freedom and law. ## Verbatim Moments - *"the rule of law... is not compatible with the technological era that we're living in today."* - *"the survival of the rule of laws we know it depends upon the support of big multinational corporations now that."* - *"the ultimate guarantor of the rule of law is the courts."* - *"power is not susceptible to government control."* - *"globalization is an overused term and it's become politically charged."* - *"the paradox and that is that the more global or international if you prefer we are the less possible it is for a national legal system a national government working with a national court system to protect our rights."* - *"the only entity that is capable of exercising real global influence in a direct day-to-day fashion is the global multinational corporation."* - *"the great democratic battles of the 21st century in my view has to be about the corporate franchise."* - *"how do we get corporations to accept their role as 21st century Co guarantors of the rule of law."*