Mr.David

ABA Division for Public Education

Part I

what is the rule of law

The rule of law is a term that is often used but difficult to define. A frequently heard saying is that the rule of law means the government of law, not men. But what is meant by “a government of law, not men”? Aren’t laws made by men and women in their roles as legislators? Don’t men and women enforce the law as police officers or interpret the law as judges? And don’t all of us choose to follow, or not to follow, the law as we go about our daily lives? How does the rule of law exist independently from the people who make it, interpret it, and live it? The easiest answer to these questions is that the rule of law cannot ever be entirely separate from the people who make up our government and our society. The rule of law is more of an ideal that we strive to achieve, but sometimes fail to live up to. The idea of the rule of law has been around for a long time. Many societies, including our own, have developed institutions and procedures to try to make the rule of law a reality. These institutions and procedures have contributed to the definition of what makes up the rule of law and what is necessary to achieve it. This section of the Dialogue offers quotations that define components of the rule of law as it has been understood at different times and in different contexts. It asks Dialogue participants to use these quotations in giving meaning to the concept of the rule of law. It then considers a working definition of the rule of law that has been proposed by the American Bar Association’s World Justice Project.

What makes up the rule of law?

No freemen shall be taken or imprisoned or disseised or exiled or in any way destroyed, nor will we go upon him nor send upon him, except by the lawful judgment of his peers or by the law of the land. —Article 39, Magna Carta (1215) In 1215, King John of England signed the Magna Carta (or Great Charter). A group of barons, powerful noblemen who...