Rule of Law? -- Joyce Vance

[erronis]

https://joycevance.substack.com/p/rule-of-law

“People value the Rule of Law because it takes some of the edge off the power that is necessarily exercised over them in a political community. In various ways, being ruled through law, means that power is less arbitrary, more predictable, more impersonal, less peremptory, less coercive even.”

I appreciate this perspective - a different way of thinking about it, at least for me.

In his 2010 book, The Rule of Law, Tom Bingham wrote that, at bottom, the rule of law provides much-needed predictability in the conduct of our lives and businesses. In other words, the rule of law is far more than just a matter of legal philosophy. It has a practical impact on the economy and our financial well-being, for instance. People can invest and do business because they understand the rules that will be applied to those transactions. Understanding the practical importance of the rule of law should perk up some people who might otherwise be nodding off, given the title of this post. Bear with me; I promise there is more than an academic point to what you’re about to read.

Bingham is more properly Sir Thomas Bingham. He was a high-ranking British civil judge, the Master of the Rolls, before becoming Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales, the head of the judiciary. He also served as the Senior Law Lord of the United Kingdom. In other words, he was well situated to discuss the rule of law. His book is readable and accessible for people of all backgrounds, should you want more of his thinking.

Unlike many terms we deploy with precision in our legal system, terms like “due process” or “equal protection,” there isn’t a single commonly accepted definition of the rule of law. To Bingham, “the Rule of Law is one of the ideals of our political morality and it refers to the ascendancy of law as such and of the institutions of the legal system in a system of governance.” Less formally, I would suggest that it means people who live under a rule of law system are protected by the law because everyone, including government officials and government offices, has to follow it. In a rule of law system, people know what the law is—it’s publicly available in written form, and everyone is on notice of the rules. It’s enforced equally against all people and administered by an independent judiciary. No kings. As we used to say with certainty pre-Trump, no man is above the law.

That’s the problem. Even this high-level explanation of the rule of law is sufficient to illustrate what we already know: that Trump is attacking it. He has been from the get-go, and encouraged along by some regrettable Supreme Court rulings, he’s now out in full force. It’s more than just an attack on some pretty words lawyers use; it’s a fundamental attack on our way of life. Legal principles that seem removed from our daily lives can matter, and here, they matter deeply. It’s why we should all have a baseline understanding of them. And it’s why I was so encouraged to see people out protesting on Saturday for “due process” and the rule of law, something I wouldn’t have expected to see so widely a few months ago.

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