This is the traditional post-annual conference edition of Global Insight. As ever, at this time of year, it’s an embarrassment of riches, with the Association’s flagship conference – this year in Paris – providing access to some of the leading figures in the world of international affairs, law and business. As well as features on the rule of law implications of both the Israel-Hamas conflict and former US President Donald Trump’s various court cases, the pages that follow include abridged transcripts of interviews conducted in Paris with Karim Khan, Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court and Andriy Kostin, Ukraine’s Prosecutor General.

Both men are at the forefront of holding to account those responsible for extensive crimes that have been, and continue to be, committed during the major conflicts unfolding in the Middle East (see feature, The Israel-Hamas conflict), and Eastern Europe. Both make for compelling interviewees, with much to say on two of the most pressing humanitarian crises facing us today. A phrase Khan used repeatedly during the interview was particularly striking. He made it clear that he is striving – through the International Criminal Court and by working with relevant authorities on the ground – to achieve justice, whether in Palestine, Sudan, Ukraine or elsewhere, working at what he describes as ‘the speed of relevance’.

Khan speaks powerfully and in inspirational terms on exactly what he means by this. ‘International justice isn’t only a normative value’, he says. ‘It’s not only an inalienable right of individuals. It’s not only a function of the international principle […] There has to be a more acute realisation that when people are in terror and fearing for their lives, the law has to be seen to be relevant to them. It can't be this approach that we take a decade before we move.’ This is a great maxim for the legal profession as a whole, whether it comes to holding former President Donald Trump to account (see feature, Trump – and the rule of law – on trial), regulating the fast-moving and ever-more powerful tech sector (see, An interview with Zack Kass) or responding to the issues such as the climate crisis and the worst excesses of the finance sector. To deliver the rule of law in a meaningful way for people most in need, the legal profession must act at the speed of relevance.

We hope you enjoy this edition.