Abstract

On April 23, 2008, lawyers and business leaders gathered in Indianapolis, Indiana, for a one day conference entitled, A Summit on the Global Economy, the Rule of Law and Their Effects on Indiana. The Summit was an initiative of the World Justice Project of the American Bar Association (ABA) and was hosted by the Indiana State Bar Association, the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University, and the Indiana Chamber of Commerce. Through three panels and a keynote address, speakers and the audience explored issues around the rule of law and global economy. The conference proceedings, when taken as a whole, propose a future line of research about the relationship between the rule of law and the global economy. Discussants engaged with the fact that stable, strong, and growing economies are often preconditions to the establishment of sustainable and quality legal systems and human rights. Yet, they also wrestled with the need for pro-business laws and predictable enforcement mechanisms to be in place to encourage cross-border business in the first place. The group clarified the meaning of the "rule of law" and its relationship to the global economy, as well as raised new questions for future scholarship.