Dr Eric Crampton: When rules are only worth the paper they’re written on

There’s a fragility to rules-based orders that has been around for as long as those orders have.

So long as people generally agree that it is good to be bound by the rules, and that trying to change the rules is better than ignoring or breaking them, a rules-based order can persist. People can make important personal and business choices knowing important aspects of the world around them are durable.