//////////////////////
A.V. Dicey, The Law of the Constitution, ch. 4 (8th
ed.
1915), oll.libertyfund.org/index.php?option=com_staticxt&staticfile=show.php%3Ftitle=1714&Itemid=28
on three meanings of the phrase:
“It means, in the first place, the
absolute
supremacy or predominance of regular law as opposed to the influence of
arbitrary power, and excludes the use of arbitrariness, of prerogative,
or even of wide discretionary authority on the part of the
government.
Englishmen are ruled by law, and by the law alone; a man may with us be
punished for a breach of law, but he can be punished for nothing else.”
“It means, again, equality before
the law, or the equal subjection of all classes to the ordinary law of
the land administered by the ordinary Law Courts; the ‘rule of law’ in
this sense excludes the idea of any exemption of officials from the
duty
of obedience to the law which governs other citizens or from the
jurisdiction
of the ordinary tribunals . . . .
“The ‘rule of law,’ lastly, may be used
as a formula for expressing the fact that with us the law of the
constitution,
the rules which in foreign countries naturally form part of a
constitutional
code, are not the source but the consequence of the rights of
individuals,
as defined and enforced by the Courts; that, in short, the principles
of
private law have with us been by the action of the Courts and
Parliament
so extended as to determine the position of the Crown and of its
servants;
thus the constitution is the result of the ordinary law of the land.”
//////////////////////
Friedrich A. Hayek, The Road to Serfdom, ch. 6 (1945)
(also on p. 49 of the Reader's
Digest condensed version (April 1945):
"Stripped of all technicalities, [the rule of law] means that
government
in all its actions is bound by rules fixed and announced beforehand –
rules
which make it possible to foresee with fair certainty how the authority
will use its coercive powers in given circumstances and to plan one’s
individual
affairs on the basis of this knowledge. Though this ideal can
never
be perfectly achieved . . . the essential point, that the discretion
left
to the executive organs wielding coercive power should be reduced as
much
as possible, is clear enough."
Hayek, The Constitution of Liberty, ch. 14 (1960):
“Mankind has learned from long and painful experience that the law
of liberty must possess certain attributes. What are they?
“The first point that must be stressed
is that, because the rule of law means that government must never
coerce
an individual except in the enforcement of a known rule, it constitutes
a limitation on the powers of all government, including the powers of
the
legislature. It is a doctrine concerning what the law ought to
be,
concerning the general attributes that particular laws should possess.”
. . . .
“The second chief attribute which must
be required of true laws is that they be known and certain.”
. . . .
“The third requirement of true law is
equality.”
///////////////////////
Fuller
views [the rule of law] as entailing a
series of moral qualities that are characteristic of good law. These include the requirements of:
•
Generality, so that expectations of conduct are
stated in rules widely applicable and impartially applied;
•
Publicity, so that legal decision makers make
available to the public the rules to be observed;
•
Prospectivity, so that no one will be subject to
the “threat of retrospective change”;
•
Understandability, or what has also been called
clarity;
•
Consistency, so that no one is subject to
contradictory rules;
•
Possibility, that is, the prohibition of “rules
that require conduct beyond the powers of the affected party”;
•
Stability, so that rules do not change so
frequently that parties cannot adequately gauge their actions and
inactions;
and
•
Congruence between the stated rules and their
actual administration.
////////////////////////
Paul Johnson, Laying Down the Law, The Wall St. Journal, March 10, 1999, www-hsc.usc.edu/~hrkaslow/Governance/MFA/Laying%20Down%20the%20Law.pdf
"The most important political development of the second millennium
was the firm establishment, first in one or two countries, then in
many,
of the rule of law. Its acceptance and enforcement in any society is
far
more vital to the happiness of the majority than is even democracy
itself.
For democracy, without the rule of law to uphold the wishes of the
electorate,
is worthless, as the history of the past half-century has shown again
and
again in Africa, Latin America and Asia. The Soviet Union had, in
theory,
a wonderfully democratic constitution, But it lacked the rule of law
entirely,
and as a result Stalin was able to murder 30 million of its citizens
and
die safely in his bed, unarraigned and unpunished.
"What do we mean by the rule of law? We mean a judicial regime in which
everyone is equal before the law, and everyone--and every
institution--is
subject to it."
////////////////////////
Lawrence Solum, The Rule of Law, Legal Theory
Lexicon,
July 5, 2009, lsolum.typepad.com/legaltheory/2009/07/legal-theory-lexicon-the-rule-of-law.html
Last updated May 28, 2015.