Are Sovereigns Entitled to the Benefit of the International Rule of Law? An Introduction

In this symposium, we publish Jeremy Waldron's article, Are Sovereigns Entitled to the Benefit of the Rule of Law? together with four responses, by Samantha Besson, David Dyzenhaus, Thomas Poole and Alexander Somek. Waldron is justifiably renowned as a jurisprude and theorist of the concept of the rule of law. His engagement with international law is more recent, but no less significant. In this article, he takes a familiar (perhaps even tired) question among international lawyers can there be something akin to a rule of law in international affairs? and recasts how we ought to think about it. With characteristically deft and plain-speaking arguments, Waldron burrows to the heart of the issue: What might it mean to speak of an international rule of law, and who or what are properly understood as its beneficiaries?