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- Date
- Jun 11 - Jun 14, 2026
- Session no.
- S941-01
- Location
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Salzburg, Austria
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Peace & Justice
The Future of the Rule of the Law in a Fractured World
The United States and Europe have long sought to advance the rule of law abroad through aid programs, technical assistance, and conditionality. Yet those models, born of post-Cold War optimism, now appear dated.
Today, the rule of law faces new tests. In the United States, politicized attacks on courts and constitutional constraints reveal internal fragility. Across Europe, populism, executive dominance, and disinformation have strained democratic institutions. Externally, the once-shared project of promoting the rule of law has entered a period of uncertainty. Russia and China advance rival conceptions of governance that privilege sovereignty and control over accountability and rights. Other powerful illiberal states are now actively promoting these alternative models, offering a vision of “rule by law” that prioritizes regime security and centralized authority over pluralism and individual rights.
Against this backdrop, how should rising leaders in the field of international law think about their responsibility to the mechanisms that uphold international law: accountability, equality, fairness, transparency, and the fundamental belief in the law as a precondition for international peace, political stability, and fundamental rights and freedoms? And what can be done to ensure that these rising international lawyers are supported and equipped to navigate the complex challenges facing the rule of law in the 21st century?
Salzburg Global, the International Bar Association (IBA), and 21st Century Trust will bring together early- to mid-career lawyers from both sides of the Atlantic — many practicing in major law firms, international organizations, and public institutions — to ask what role they can play in defending, sustaining, and adapting the rule of law. Their daily work in cross-border transactions, compliance, dispute resolution, and human-rights advocacy makes them frontline actors in this global contest over legality. The program will connect their international legal skills and practice to the fundamental question of our time: How to safeguard the rule of law as a core principle of free, fair, and just societies.
Date
Jun 11 - Jun 14, 2026
Session no.
S941-01
Location
Salzburg, Austria
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Program Information
The rule of law is essential to effective governance and the preservation of individual rights. It underlies transnational cooperation and problem-solving. The Salzburg Global International Law Fellows Network builds an active association of promising younger associates and international lawyers at the early stages of their careers to help them understand and effectively engage on a range of issues that are critical to safeguarding the rule of law.
International lawyers play a critical role in designing policy and advising global leaders in the public and private sectors. The International Law Fellows Network connects those with immense promise while at the early stages of their careers, supporting their professional growth and deepening their understanding of how their areas of practice can support and preserve the rule of law and rules-based order.
This program convenes approximately 30 early- to mid-career leading international and transnational lawyers from across the world with 5-to-10 years of legal practice. At this moment in their professional development, younger lawyers have the experience to understand the implications of their respective practices on the larger issues of the rule of law but also the flexibility to shape their future professional development in a way that allows them to maximize their contributions to these issues through their future practices.
Participants will have experience in private practice, international institutions, national governments, the not-for-profit sector, and academia. They excel in their respective areas of practice, demonstrate a commitment to upholding democracy and promoting the rule of law, and share intellectual curiosity around the power of law as an agent of change.
This program is open to Fellows of the Cutler Center for the Rule of Law, lawyers from firms that hold membership in the International Bar Association, those sponsored by our partners, and others that wish to apply.
The two-and-a-half-day intensive program uses a mix of pedagogical approaches to build expertise and maximize ways in which every participant can share and learn. It combines plenary discussion, curated conversations, and practical small working groups.
The meeting adheres to the Chatham House Rule to allow for candid and open exchange of ideas.
- Build a network of legal professionals committed to furthering the rule of law through their practice.
- Consider innovative and multipronged solutions to current threats and challenges facing the rule of law globally.
- Create resources to promote integrating rule of law principles in international law practice more widely
- Why did the extensive efforts to build the rule of law—particularly in Europe after 1989—prove fragile or fail to take root in some states?
- What does rule-of-law promotion mean when the United States is no longer leading, and how should rule of law efforts respond to the alternative governance models advanced by Russia and China?
- In an era when law has become a weapon of statecraft—through sanctions, extraterritorial regulation, and strategic litigation—how can lawyers preserve the legitimacy of legal tools while avoiding their instrumentalization?
- How can lawyers in major firms and international practice settings advance the rule of law through their own professional choices?
Application
Call for Applications: International Law Fellows Network: “The Future of the Rule of Law in a Fractured World”
Application Deadline Extended: April 10, 2026
All applicants will receive a response to their application. Please refrain from contacting program staff about the outcome of your application.
Program Dates: June 11-14, 2026
Location: Schloss Leopoldskron in Salzburg, Austria
Fees: Participants selected for this program through an IBA member firm or the Salzburg Global Cutler Fellowship community will have their program fees, accommodation, and meals at Hotel Schloss Leopoldskron fully funded. Participants from the IBA will also be eligible to have travel costs covered through IBA support.
For general applicants, the cost is $4,250 and employer sponsorship is welcomed.
How to apply?
Please follow this link to apply.
Review of the applications will be completed after April 25th. If your registration is accepted, payment is due within five (5) business days after receipt of the confirmation. Payment can be made via credit card (Mastercard or Visa) or bank transfer. Please contact our Finance team at usfinance@salzburgglobal.org with any questions about program payment.
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