I’ve been thinking lately about the Rule Of Law. Not just because it’s what my job indirectly affects every day, by greasing the skids of projects for our clients and promoting the practice of law, but the larger picture. We’re in business to make a profit, but our company philosophy extends beyond that.
Beyond our goal of becoming the pre-eminent software company in the legal space, we’re actively engaged in promoting the rule of law in the US and abroad. On the face of it, that’s a very high-minded ideal, but it boils down to a more simply-stated principle. Don’t allow unchecked power.
Specifically, one of the things I admire most about our company is the intersection of advancing that principle with modern technology. That goal seems never more important than right now. Witness Syria, Westminster/Parliament, ISIS in Yazidis… and several more ongoing issues facing the world.
The ability to record and verify such actions is paramount in being able to apply the rule of law. LexisNexis Legal and Professional1 was instrumental in bringing about the Eyewitness to Atrocities app2 to do just that.
With the renewed amount of sabre rattling in today’s world, it makes me consider just how important the concept of accountability and proof are. Imagine what a potential non-story the Arab Spring would have been without modern technology3 . Then consider what effect that same technology, accompanied by an app like EyeWitness, could have had on events such as Rwanda or the Congo some twenty years ago, or even Cambodia almost forty.
It’s very satisfying to work for a company that invests in issues, in a real and substantive way, that contribute to stability in a tumultuous world.
1EyeWitness to Atrocities app http://www.eyewitnessproject.org/
2Launch of Eyewitness app – http://bit.ly/2nZcHv0
3Smartphones in the Arab spring – http://bit.ly/2omlE3c