The Rule of Law: Professor Paul Gowder Applies Legal Principles to Everyday Encounters

Paul Gowder, professor of law at Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law, recalls a time during his adolescent years imprinted in his memory.

Part of California State University LA’s early entrance program, Paul entered college at the age of 14. As a staple of his weekly routine, he commuted to and from school on the light rail in Los Angeles.

“At that time, I was going to school a good distance from home,” he says. “The rail line runs through some neighborhoods perceived by many to be rough, including Compton.”

Son of a Black father and Caucasian mother, Paul notes the complexities of this perception—one, he says, was related to race, as Compton is a primarily Black neighborhood.

“In this case, perception is not always reality. These are simply people living in a community much like anyone else.”

One evening while commuting home, a police officer came through Paul’s section to check tickets.

“I was roughly 15 at the time, a year or so into school. Even though I was attending college, I was still just a snarky teenager,” Paul says.

While acting as that same snarky teenager, Paul made a joke to the police officer, a joke the officer unfortunately didn’t find humorous. Paul notes his comments could be perceived as disrespect, citing his age and teenage immaturity for the error in judgment. His remarks did not break any laws, yet they incited much more than simply a teaching lesson.

“The police officer’s response was to order me off the train at the Compton station and threaten to leave me there,” Paul reflects. “In his mind, this was an unsafe neighborhood, and that somehow if I were to be left there I would be in immediate danger.”

Paul continues, “Yes, I did make an unfortunate teenage joke. That said, this officer thought it was okay to threaten to abandon a 15-year-old boy without another way home.”

This exchange and the officer’s response, he says, is an example of the way ordinary people experience chance encounters with violations of the rule of law.

The Rule of Law

Fast-forward to today, and Paul is a renowned scholar and active global leader in the rule of law. By definition, the rule of law suggests that all people should be held accountable for the same laws—including government officials.

According to Paul, the rule of law is a term that “tries to capture the principles and institutions a country has in order to prevent the abuse of power.” It is about establishing a set of norms that ensure the government is held to the same standard of the law.

“Part of the job of every government is to resolve conflict between private citizens, and that tends to involve some way of deploying power, like police or militaries,” he says. “The problem is how we keep that power from being abused.”

A Defining Moment

When asked to supply one profound example of a violation of the rule of law, Paul reflects on the killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, in 2014, which catalyzed a nationwide movement to hold police officers and other government officials accountable to the rule of law.

For Paul and others, this moment was about much more than police brutality. Organized movements such as Forward through Ferguson uncovered that the legal system was also being used in other ways for discriminatory practices.

“In Ferguson, they found that essentially the legal system was being used for stealth taxation for ordinances that most people didn’t know existed,” Paul says. “As an example, there was a residency permit that stated you must pay a tax if you have a roommate. Some who were unaware about this ordinance were then arrested.”

Paul adds, “Public powers are meant to protect people, and these kinds of unknown ordinances feel more like traps, which is the opposite of the rule of law.”

When these abuses of power occur, according to Paul, the law then becomes inaccessible to the general public. In an ideal state, ordinary people should be able to walk down the street feeling secure, unafraid of the police, the IRS, or other government entities.

Scholarly Devotion to the Rule of Law

A leading scholar in the field, Paul has published several works related to the rule of law, notably The Rule of Law in the Real World by Cambridge University Press in 2016 and The Rule of Law in the United States: An Unfinished Project of Black Liberation by Hart/Bloomsbury in 2021. Paul also published The Networked Leviathan: For Democratic Platforms in 2023 and is currently working on his fourth book on critical race and constitutional theory.

Paul’s work extends far beyond the written word. Most recently, he was selected to serve as a member of the European Public Law Organization’s (EPLO) Global Rule of Law Commission. In January, he traveled to Cascais, Portugal, where he worked alongside global leaders and legal scholars to create a set of global ideals and values related to the rule of law. With plans to systemize a worldwide effort surrounding these principles, the EPLO has been granted Observer Status at the General Assembly of the United Nations, the World Intellectual Property Organization, the International Labor Organization, the International Organization for Migration, the Espoo Convention, and SEA Protocol – UNECE, as well as the status of Associate Observer by the Community of Portuguese-speaking Countries (CPLP).

In addition to scholarship and service, Paul’s commitment to the rule of law is evident in the classroom. Throughout his career, he has taught courses such as Torts, Critical Race Theory, Professional Responsibility, Policy Lab, Classical Athenian Law, and others. It is perhaps his Constitutional Law courses, however, where he is able to most clearly exemplify the realities, shortfalls, and significance of the rule of law.

“Some students enter constitutional law thinking it won’t apply to them,” Paul says. “But inevitably something happens in the news cycle each semester that makes us throw out the syllabus and apply real examples to the rule of law and its relationship to the Constitution.”

Paul adds that he appreciates the chance to use current events to enter into constructive dialogue with students about these topics. For those students, he elaborates, the Constitution then becomes “less of an archaic document and more of a living, applicable, and significant legal representation of democracy.”

Prior to his tenure at Northwestern Pritzker Law, Paul served on the faculty at the University of Iowa College of Law. Before his scholarly appointments, he served as a former civil rights and legal aid lawyer. In those contexts, he represented victims of police misconduct, predatory lending, employment discrimination, unlawful eviction, domestic violence, and numerous other injustices. Much of Paul’s work stems from his passion for social justice and racial, economic, and gender equality.