Dear Ban Ki-moon,
The organisers of next week’s Global Law Summit, from 22nd to the 25th February, are using the announcement of a short video address by you to give them legitimacy. I am writing to ask you to withdraw your video. For what they are doing is wrong.
Presented as a gathering about the rule of law to mark this year’s 800th anniversary of the sealing of Magna Carta, the so-called ‘summit’, with tickets at £1,750 ($2,600), is nothing of the sort. The programme itself describes it as a shameless opportunity for networking, promising “a platform for thought-leadership and cutting-edge debate, and facilitate business networks and access to key industry decision makers”. What is the “industry” whose “key decision makers” delegates will be given “access” to, for their money? Answer, it is the legal industry. That is how they see the rule of law: as a means of facilitating corporate power in a global market-place.
