The Court, the World

In recent years, the citation of American court decisions by courts in other nations has rapidly declined.

Legal scholars and jurists in the United States debate whether the laws and practices of other countries should be of any interest in the decisions of our own courts--or our presidency and Congress.

Adam Liptak, "U.S. Court Is Guiding Fewer Nations," New York Times, 17 September 2008.

Our government has long held that we are a beacon of freedom for the world. In the Civil Rights era of the 1960s, one heard the appeal that "the whole world is watching." Should we care that the world, especially the most advanced nations, seems to be deciding that the United States is no longer such a beacon?