Salzburg Global Fellows release The Salzburg Statement on the Critical Role of Lawyers in Safeguarding the Rule of Law, emphasizing the professional responsibility and moral imperative of the legal profession in upholding and defending the Rule of Law
A Note From Salzburg Global
In March 2025, Salzburg Global, in partnership with the International Bar Association, convened a group of leading international lawyers and legal practitioners in Salzburg, Austria, to address the deepening challenges facing the legal profession in defending the Rule of Law globally.
This initiative continues a legacy that began in 1947, when the first Salzburg Seminar helped lay the intellectual foundations for a postwar, rules-based international order. Today, that order is fraying. The Rule of Law – once taken as a shared global aspiration – is increasingly contested, weakened by unlawful uses of force, political interference in judicial systems, economic coercion, and the retreat from multilateral cooperation.
What’s more, democratic backsliding in countries long regarded as guardians of legal norms has far-reaching consequences, undermining the very framework upon which international law depends.
In this moment, lawyers have both a professional responsibility and a moral imperative. The Rule of Law is not a theoretical construct; it is the architecture that enables human dignity, equal justice, and freedom from fear. Its defense cannot be left to inertia.
Though the current threat to the Rule of Law is acute, it is not without precedent. Challenges to legal order have accompanied the law since its inception. History shows that such decline can be halted and reversed – but only through decisive, collective action. The urgency of that task is now impossible to ignore.
A Statement from the International Law Fellows Network
In this Statement, Salzburg Global Fellows recognize the fundamental role of lawyers in the defense of the Rule of Law. They call on Public Institutions, Legal Organizations, and Legal Practitioners to uphold the Rule of Law and hold all of those who would subvert or undermine the Rule of Law accountable.
This Salzburg Statement reflects the shared commitments among Salzburg Global Fellows who attended the inaugural International Law Fellows Network. It affirms their collective resolve to advance justice, strengthen legal institutions, and uphold the Rule of Law as the foundation of a just and sustainable global order.
View the publication on ISSUU:
Download The Salzburg Statement on the Critical Role of Lawyers in Safeguarding the Rule of Law as a PDF.
The Salzburg Global International Law Fellows Network inaugural session on “Safeguarding Democracy and the Rule of Law: The Crucial Role of Rising International Lawyers,” was held from March 27 to 30, 2025. Support for this program was provided by the International Bar Association and the 21st Century Trust. The views expressed here do not necessarily reflect the views of these organizations.
Learn more about the International Law Fellows Network and the Lloyd N. Cutler Center for the Rule of Law.
