Democracy ♦ Online 64 Va. J. Int’l L. Online 1 (2023)

The Future of Democracy and the Rule of Law

THE HONORABLE M. MARGARET MCKEOWN

Headlines warning about the crisis of declining or failing democracy are a constant drumbeat in the news media. This is not all contrived. Democracy has been in decline around the world for at least the past decade. Through my work in the international rule of law arena for the past two decades, I have experienced firsthand the recent backlash against democracies and the phenomenon of incremental democratic erosion resulting in, and reinforced by, judicial backsliding.

It is challenging, however, to cut through the histrionics of the news reports and make sense of what is happening. Plentiful literature diagnoses what ails democracy. A common theme is the decline of the rule of law, an issue particularly close to my heart. In this piece, I discuss why rule of law is fundamental to democracy and why rule of law is under threat across the world, particularly through executive encroachment and internet criminalization and censorship. While I do not have a crystal ball to predict where we are going, I offer a lens to understand these issues.