Thank you for downloading the 2012 BBC Reith Lectures.

This year's lectures, titled The Rule of Law and its Enemies,

are given by the economic historian Professor Neil Ferguson.

The presenter is Sue Lawley.

Hello and welcome to the third in this year's series of BBC Reith Lectures.

Today we're in Gresham College in the City of London, its oldest place of

higher education. This hall dates back over five centuries, hence the creaky floorboards,

which you may well hear from time to time. The college was founded by a bequest from one of the shrewdest

financiers of the Elizabethan age, Sir Thomas Gresham. Sir Thomas wanted his money used to pay

distinguished professors to give free lectures to the people of London, a tradition that continues to

this day. Well, our distinguished professor today is Neil Ferguson, his subject, the rule of law,

and its enemies. In his first lecture, he set out his main argument

that the West's relative decline since the 1970s

has been in part the result of a deterioration

in the quality of our institutions.

In lecture two, he discussed how excessively complex financial regulation

is the disease of which it purports to be the cure.

Today, he turns his attention to the law.

Has the rule of law, the foundation stone of our liberties for centuries, now degenerated into the rule of lawyers?

With his third lecture, the landscape of law,

ladies and gentlemen,

please welcome the BBC Reith Lecturer

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