Rule of Law

The principle that government and citizens alike are bound by known, general, and fairly applied laws

Overview

Aristotle argued that it is better for the law to rule than any individual, and English lawyers from Bracton to Coke insisted that even the king was under the law. The modern formulation owes most to A. V. Dicey, whose 1885 study of the English constitution described the rule of law as the absence of arbitrary power, the equal subjection of officials and citizens to the ordinary courts, and the derivation of constitutional rights from judicial decisions. Later theorists stressed clarity, prospectivity, and independent courts, and Lord Bingham's 2010 book set out eight practical principles. The idea now appears in national constitutions and international instruments alike.