The rule of law
Concept · Politics, stage 1: Learn the vocabulary
The rule of law is the requirement that power be exercised through general, public and reasonably stable rules applied by independent courts, rather than by particular commands issued by officials. Its formal demands are that laws be prospective, knowable and applied equally, including to those who make them. Whether the ideal also carries substantive content - whether an efficiently administered but unjust law can satisfy it - is a live dispute among legal theorists.
Why it matters
It is what separates being governed by law from being governed by whoever currently holds office.
Part of
The rule of law in the glossary
Sources
- The Rule of Law Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
- Magna Carta, 1215 The Avalon Project, Yale Law SchoolThe document usually cited as the first written limit on a ruler by law, in translation.
- Rule of law Wikipedia
