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Speaker Series Examines Challenges to the Rule of Law

Bruce Swartz speaks to a class with other faculty seated next to him
Lecturer in Law Bruce Swartz (left), who formerly supervised the Justice Department's global rule of law programs, was one of the organizers of the series.

From the plaintiff in one of the term’s biggest Supreme Court cases to international law experts, an array of speakers shared their insights on the rule of law as part of The Tsai Leadership Program last fall. The series was co-sponsored by the Peter Gruber Rule of Law Clinic and the Ludwig Program in Public Sector Leadership.

Over six lunchtime sessions, the “Introduction to the Rule of Law” series offered students a variety of frameworks for considering recent challenges to the rule of law in the United States and abroad, said Clinical Lecturer in Law Sonia Mittal ’13. Mittal co-organized the series along with Rule of Law Clinic instructors Harold Hongju Koh, Sterling Professor of International Law, and Bruce Swartz ’79, lecturer in law and Aharon Barak Rule of Law Fellow.

“These are challenges that all three of us have considered as attorneys for the government and as scholars, and we wanted to join our law school colleagues in helping students make sense of this very complex time,” said Mittal, who is a former federal prosecutor.

Rebecca Slaughter speaks to a classroom on a video screen
Rebecca Slaughter '07, the former Federal Trade Commissioner whose suit challenging her dismissal was argued before the Supreme Court, spoke to one of the sessions via Zoom.

Each session was moderated by Koh, who served as legal adviser to the State Department from 2009 to 2013 and senior political appointee in that office in 2021. 

“Recent times have confirmed that lawyers need to understand what the ‘rule of law’ is that they will swear to uphold,” Koh said. “But most law schools never provide background or debate about just what it means, especially in turbulent times. This series was intended to fill that critical gap.” 

 Swartz, who supervised the Department of Justice’s global rule of law programs from 2000 to 2025 as deputy assistant attorney general for international affairs, said, “There has never been a more important moment to reaffirm the central role that the rule of law has played throughout our country’s history — and to jointly commit to ensuring that it continues to do so.” 

The interdisciplinary series combined discussions by leading legal scholars with insights from practitioners and public servants. Topics included separation of powers, structural constraints on presidential power, rights and national security, due process and habeas corpus, the independence of rule of law institutions, and rule of law as a global concept. 

Mittal said the series sought to feature speakers with a broad range of scholarly perspectives and professional experiences. 

Speakers included experts such as Rebecca Kelly Slaughter ’07, the former Federal Trade Commissioner whose suit challenging her dismissal was argued before the Supreme Court on Dec. 8;  Elizabeth Andersen ’93, executive director of the Basel Institute on Governance; Saikrishna Prakash ’93 of the University of Virginia School of Law; William Treanor ’85, Georgetown Law Dean Emeritus and Agnes Williams Sesquicentennial Professor of Constitutional Law; and former U.S. Ambassador Yuri Kim.

Other sessions featured Yale Law School faculty members Daniel Markovits ’00, Nicholas Parrillo ’04, Cristina Rodríguez ’00, Keith Whittington, John Witt ’99, and Senior Research Scholar Lucas Guttentag.

[Hearing from Slaughter] clarified the stakes of our work at the law school in an incredibly powerful way.”—Lindsey Williams ’28

Making connections to the headlines

While the series was open to all students, Mittal said it was particularly geared to first-term students who are not yet eligible to take upper-level courses or join clinics.

“We felt an obligation to help situate this moment for all of our students, but in particular those who have just joined the law school,” Mittal said. “Sometimes when you read your very first cases, it can be hard to see connections between them and what you're reading about in the news. We wanted to help our newest students make some of those connections.” 

A closeup of Harold Koh speaking to another panelist at the Rule of Law series
The series was moderated by Harold Koh, Sterling Professor of International Law, who served as legal adviser to the State Department from 2009 to 2013 after leading the Law School as dean.  

Lindsey Williams ’28 said the series was a valuable addition to the first-term curriculum. The highlight for her was hearing from Slaughter. “Her account of her termination illustrated the political reality undergirding the often-abstract doctrinal questions that populate constitutional law,” Williams said. “It clarified the stakes of our work at the law school in an incredibly powerful way.”

Slaughter’s case resonated even more for Williams because her first-year small group professor had assigned Trump v. Slaughter for their group’s brief and oral argument. “I think my classmates and I were the only 1Ls who got to meet our ‘client’ face-to-face,” she added.

Madeline Babin ’26 is a student director in the Peter Gruber Rule of Law Clinic and was gratified by the popularity of the series. “We had an average of 120 to 150 students register for each event, which to me reflected the need and the appetite for this kind of dialogue,” she said.

Babin was especially interested in the series’ discussions about separation of powers and how limits on presidential authority function in practice, particularly in the context of national security. 

Babin said she appreciated that the series provided a forum where students could engage seriously with contested issues. “I wanted to be part of creating a space for the sustained, constructive dialogue that is essential to the health and durability of our democratic system,” she said.