Ronald Dworkin, a law and philosophy professor at New York University, speaks at the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law at Arizona State University, Feb. 10, 2011. ASU photo.

In early February, philosopher Ronald Dworkin spoke at the ASU Law School. I was sorry to have missed him, for I enjoy a thoughtful conversation about law and policy.

Besides enjoying his name, the extent of my Dworkin knowledge extends to this quote of his:

“A judge’s discretion, like the hole in the doughnut, does not exist except as an area left open by a surrounding belt of restriction.”

Any professor who can combine law and pastry is worth examining. And that’s why I was pleased that a journalism student from the ASU Cronkite School wrote a news story on the event. Thanks to Staci McCabe, and the law school.

Here is her story.

Dworkin Discusses International Law’s Inadequacies at Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law

By Staci McCabe

Ronald Dworkin, Professor of Philosophy and Frank Henry Sommer Professor of Law at New York University, spoke about the conventional view of international law during a lecture on Thursday, Feb. 10, in Armstrong Hall at the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law at Arizona State University.

Dworkin is regarded as a leading legal and constitutional law philosopher. His lecture at ASU is considered the first time he has publicly addressed international law specifically.

Before an audience of more than 350 people, Dworkin argued that the conventional view, which relies on the consent of sovereign national states, is an inadequate way to look at international law. To view a video of the lecture, go to online.law.asu.edu/events/2011/dworkin_lecture.

“I think there are some serious, fatal flaws in the consent theory, and that we have to begin again,” he said.

Instead, Dworkin contends that the international community must realize that law is an interpretive concept, and in turn, that international law is much richer and more important to the world’s problems than it has been conceived in the past.

“We need to go back and reinvent the foundations of international law,” he said.   

In particular, the current consent-based international system is not sufficient for the significant challenges the international community faces including terrorism, genocide and climate change, which all require international cooperation, Dworkin said.

In order to deal with these significant issues, the international community must act as a cohesive unit as opposed to the current system that divides the international community into separate states, Dworkin said.

“I think that the need for international law in this particular century is profound,” he said. “We face danger of dramatic sorts.”

Despite that, Dworkin said, the development of international law is at a low point.

The division within the international community can be seen again and again as conference after conference fails, he said.

“The international system is disabled from solving coordination problems of that massive scale entirely because we are divided into separate nations,” he said.

Dworkin also proposed that the international community create a duty of salience, essentially a state’s duty to promote international legitimacy.

If there is a practice, doctrine or institution whose general acceptance would improve legitimacy of the international system, then states have a duty to join, support, respect and advance that practice, he said.

Dworkin conceded that it is unlikely that powerful states will accept the restrictions that come from his proposed international system. However, he doesn’t believe that the time for such an international system is far off.

“The time will come, I believe, the pressures are already building, when a stronger, more realistic international law will be in the interest of so many nations,” Dworkin said.  “Climate threats alone may do this.”

“It is time now to plant and nourish the roots of international law and leave counting the twigs til later,” he said.

Dworkin, author of the new book, Justice for Hedgehogs, is also an Emeritus Professor of Jurisprudence and a Fellow of University College at Oxford. He received bachelor’s degrees from Harvard College and Oxford University, and an LL.B. from Harvard Law School. Dworkin has clerked for Judge Learned Hand and was associated with Sullivan and Cromwell in New York.