The Palermo Conference represents an important paradigm of civic responsibility that holds important global lessons for the kind of solidarity and cooperation necessary to transform the harsh reality of private and even public tyranny into the higher ideals of civic decency. It is the predicate that defends the rule of law precept as a stabilising and transformative component of a world order that honours and respects the dignity of all the people. The theme of the symposium where this paper was first presented was, of course, the rule of law in the global village. More specifically, the title here is ‘The Rule of Law: Lofty Ideal or Harsh Reality?’ How then does the UN convention against Transnational Organized Crime, in general, impact on the major themes just specified? What does the convention have to do with the rule of law and the earth‐space community, visualised as a global village?