Rethinking the WTO - A Tribute to Bob Lutz
Over the last thirty years, almost every time I stepped out of my narrow academic path to do something that, I hoped, was for the greater public good, I encountered Bob Lutz. When I worked with the American Bar Association (ABA) to encourage the engagement of its members with first the Soviet Union, and then Russia, Bob was there as a leader in its Section on International Law. A few years later, when I served in the State Department's Office of the Legal Adviser, Bob came to Foggy Bottom to represent the interests of the ABA. A decade after that, when I worked on the American Law Institute's Restatement (Fourth) of the Foreign Relations Law of the United States, Bob served as liaison to the ABA as well as a member of the project's Members Consultative Group. At each stage, he acted as a bridge between the academic community, government, and bar associations by devoting time, energy, and mind space to involve all sides of the legal profession and striving to improve international law. Having devoted his career to this field, Bob must have some concerns about the direction the world seems to be heading today. At the beginning of this century, the commitment to the international rule of law seemed widespread and deep. Since then, national populists have upended politics in the rich world, including the United States.