The Rule of Law

"This very short introduction sets out the origins and development of an English-language debate centered around the phrase "rule of law." It aims is to explore the distinctive ethical contribution offered by various thinkers to this specific phrase, first theorized by the English scholar A.V. Dicey, while largely setting aside how the same questions are framed and resolved in other traditions. The book opens by canvassing the classical and early modern sources upon which Dicey and his successors explicitly drew. It then explores the idea of Dicey, who it flags as the first self-conscious theorist of the rule of law. It then recounts his immediate successors. These include a heterogenous range of thinkers, such as Friedrich Hayek, Lon Fuller, Ronald Dworkin, and Tom Bingham. With this genealogy in hand, the book then reflects the important question of why the rule of law (in some version or other) persists-that is, why do actors with the power to cast aside the rule of law not do so? The book next turns to the ways in which the term "rule of law" has diffused across borders, making it a geopolitical phenomenon. Specifically, the phrase was taken toward the end of the twentieth century across borders by actors as diverse as the World Bank, Singapore, and the Chinese Communist Party. Finally, the book closes by examining the way that the rule-of-law tradition can be challenged both as a matter of theory and practice"--