David G. Newman
Who and how will laws, treaties, and agreements be ENFORCED?
Could there be a time when everyone and every nation will self-enforce the “rule of law”?
Yes, and another challenge besides general acceptance of peoples from all countries of just international rules and their enforcement is:
Innovative, trusted, impartial, multi-stakeholder UN Foundation or UN funded dispute resolution processes need to be available, accessible, and encouraged to be used.
When such processes of Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) are available tools to be used, their use will be induced by rules that reward or and discourage non- use and most significantly by the risk of ICJ and/or ICC Court or domestic court orders being imposed them that are not as good as a resolution by agreement.
A wide range of orders injunctions, damages, penalties and other remedies designed to deter and/ or rectify and compensate what is deemed by the court to be just and make whole the victims would be provided by Rules of Court and International Law.
The beauty of resolution by agreement is that creative and customized solutions can be crafted to gain agreement of all stakeholders.
Having had 52 years experience with adversarial processes in courts and tribunals and multiple ADR processes and also by creating them by rules, laws, or ad hoc agreements of parties and also by serving as an interest and rights arbitrator and restorative justice facilitator I know how all of them work.
By chairing a review of Manitoba’s civil justice system and examining reviews elsewhere, I have learned that the rule of law can work globally when backed by the necessary will, resources, knowledge, and expertise. An effective, enforceable system can emerge if combined with a UN-funded global ADR mechanism. This aligns with the goals of Chapter 6 of the UN Charter, the UNESCO Charter, the ICJ, and the ICC: to prevent and resolve conflicts peacefully, with broad acceptance from informed, well-intentioned communities worldwide.
The cost savings in $ and human capital and health and well being from this transition from a culture of might over right to a culture of sustainable peace, understanding and goodwill will be demonstrated by initial successes. This vision is visible in the RoLE logo at www.rulesoflawonearth.org – the peoples of the world holding hands as the creators and guardians of the justice adversarial system symbolized by the scales of justice in the left of that circle and the small circle on the right. The small circle represents ADR.