2018 Rule of Law Lecture

The 2nd Annual Lantos Rule of Law Lecture at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) welcomed Dr. Harold Hongju Koh, Sterling Professor of International Law at Yale Law School, on Monday, December 10th, 2018.

Harold Hongju Koh’s book, The Trump Administration and International Law, looks at the first two years of the Trump administration within the realm of international law. Koh looks at immigration and refugee law, human rights, climate change, denuclearization, trade diplomacy, as well as relations with North Korea, Russia and Ukraine, the war against Al-Qaeda and IS, and the humanitarian disaster in Syria and argues that President Trump’s policies have not been successful because he cannot control the “transnational legal process” that governs these issues. Through these, players in the transnational process have used many tactics to curtail the president’s initiatives and have triggered that process as part of a collective strategy. Koh compares this process to Muhammad Ali’s rope-a-dope.” Looking forward, the stakes and implications for the future of global governance are high, particularly when faced with the rise of populist authoritarians, making this exhausting counter strategy both invaluable and indispensable.

Watch the 2018 Lantos Rule of Law Lecture HERE.