Constitution And Rule Of Law

The constitution was written by our countries founding fathers as a guide for what are government cannot do. It was written with the intent of preventing the

The law is defined as the body of rules of conduct created by the government and enforced by government authority. Without any rules and behaviour, life in a group would be difficult, if not impossible.

The structure of our American Government was founded in the Constitution of the United States. The Constitution was written to be the “supreme law of the land,” and produces a democratic republic, where citizens govern themselves (Our American Government, n.d). The purpose of our government, is to “establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessing of liberty to ourselves and our posterity” (Our American Government, n.d.). For our country to accomplish this purpose our Founding Fathers created three principles, “inherent rights, self-government, and separation of powers” (Our American Government, n.d.). The government was developed to ensure order in society and protect its citizens, but with all systems, there is strengths and weakness, let’s examine those strengths and weakness. Let’s first look at the strength and weakness of the U.S. Constitution.

The rule of law is whereby the government and all those who govern are bound by the law and everyone must follow the law. Rule of law is also known as nomocracy. Government individual officials are not entitled to make any decision which is not in accordance to the law (Paulsen, Calabresi, McConnell & Bray, 2013). All the citizens are governed by the law including those who make the laws. A. V. Dicey has highly advocated for rule of law in modern times and has popularized it. In history the idea of rule of law can be traced back to the ancient civilizations like China, Mesopotamia, and Rome among others.

A big group of people can commit tyranny, in this case the government. To stop this from ever happening, the founding fathers added federalism, separation of powers, and checks and balances to the constitution. One way that the constitution guarded against tyranny is Federalism. Federalism is the sharing of powers between the National government and the state governments. This means that both governments shared powers together, so there's no single ruler with absolute power.

The Constitution of the United States focuses more on the many laws that govern this nation. The laws are set up in a way in which the government is not given so much power that it becomes unstoppable, or tyrannical, like the English government which they had just declared independence from. The Constitution gives the government limited power, ensures equal protection and equal representation to each state and individuals. The founders were very thorough in listing how the government should be run, and what should happen if anyone person, including the president should abuse power or commit treason and other crimes. One of the themes of the Constitution is that that as a new nation we need a strong central government that will serve the

After the War of Independence, in exchange for the founding of a national government, the U.S. Constitution was regarded as a “masterfully designed cage” that would stop the “beast” of government from “running amok”. The Constitution protected the people from government, and protected subgroups from the dictatorships of majorities.

Law is a system of rules that are enforced through social institutions to govern behavior. (Robertson, Crimes against humanity, 90).Laws can be made by a collective legislature or by a single legislator, resulting in statutes, by the executive through decrees and regulations, or by judges through binding precedent, normally in common jurisdictions.

In almost every law the constitution is present. It creates a basis for our american government and contains speech that prevents misuse of power. One of the main characteristics of the Constitutional government is the Higher Law. This law promises final authority of government and is known to be superior to any Federal or State Law. As Americans, we take the Higher Law passionately, only allowing it to be changed with serious consent and consideration from the citizens. The Higher Law also helps us recognize that the government contains limitations when it comes to the citizens’ rights and responsibilities. The governing body is placed under the authority of the constitution, which includes the rights of the people.

Living under Rule of Law means all of society including institutions are held responsible for law, and law will be enforced by law enforcement. Rule of Law has three main elements. The first element is recognition of underlying concepts and values emphasizing human nobility and value. The second element values and concepts are joined and formalized in writing and they present in revered documents. Finally, the third element substantial laws and directorial law and procedures are put into effect to hold state and agents of important value. The Rule of Law has laws limiting the government from having too much power. Under Autocratic the power is left in the hands of one person. The person who is left all of the power has complete control of decision making, and society has little to no input. Under an autocratic system there is no opposition, because there is no one to oppose. Theocratic government system is a religion base system that names god as a leader. Under theocratic laws are interpreted by someone who is represented. Here the church can take the position of a civil government if

The Rule of law is considered to be a fundamental principle in the constitution of any country. A uniqueness attributed to this principle is that it is regarded as multi-faceted; there has been a multitude of definitions and at times contradictory to each other. The version of the rule of law which I will discuss is the theory of A.V Dicey. I prefer Dicey 's version simply because unlike Joseph Raz 's theory which dictates many principles, Dicey 's version emphasises three distinct concepts. The First being; No man could be punished or lawfully interfered with by the authorities except for breaches of law. In other words, all government actions must be authorised by law. Secondly, no man is above the law and everyone, regardless of rank, is subject to the ordinary laws of the land. Finally, there is no need for a bill of rights because the general principles of the constitution are the results of judicial decisions determining the rights of the private person.

Unlike the more obvious distinction between law-abiders and violators, there also exists a division between lawmakers and the general public. As mentioned previously, laws and sanctions are commonly enacted by the officials of a formal government. Throughout the entire process, from substrate to product, the general public has a small voice (if any voice at all) when it comes to matters of legal obligation. Even a government that labels itself as a Democratic system, which infers a notion of social harmony, is only deceiving itself and its citizenry. The reality of it is that society is composed of a silent majority (the people), whose values and beliefs are not accounted for by government officials.

This was a fun topic to research. I had a rough time determining if I should define the RULE of LAW or look at its history and how it was developed through our constitution to the laws that govern us today. After all the supremacy clause in our Constitution says “This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof; and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land.” After going to many websites researching a definition that I could use to start I quickly discovered that the RULE OF LAW meant something different to each of the authors of the websites and while they were all meaningful none of them encompassed what I predetermined it should be until I reached the one definition that really jumped out at me is:

The rule of law is seen as being one of the most fundamental components of the UK constitution as well as being a principle that is concerned with restricting parliamentary action. Though the rule of law is seen to be a component in the constitution; the actual meaning of the rule of law has been very problematic to interpret. This is considerably down to the fact that it means different things to different people as since the nineteenth century, academics, politicians and judges have proposed diverse definitions and explanations in regards to the rule of law and the role it upholds in the UK constitution.

“Rule of Law”, said Dicey in 1885, means “the absolute supremacy or predominance of regular law as opposed to the influence of arbitrary power and excludes the existence of arbitrariness, of prerogative ,or even wide discretionary authority on the part of government.” (THE LAW OF CONSTITUTION 198 (8th ed.)