"The King himself ought not to be subject to man, but subject to God and the law, because the law makes him King”: Lord Chief Justice Coke quoting Bracton said in the case of Proclamations (1610) 77 ER 13521 Rule of law is classical principle of administrative law. As a matter of fact this principle was one of the principles that acted as restriction for the development of Administrative Law principles. The irony further is that the rule of law is now an important part of modern Administrative Law. The concept of “Rule of Law” is the building block on which the modern democratic society is founded. Laws are made for the welfare of the people to maintain harmony between the conflicting forces in society. One of the prime objects of making …show more content…
The doctrine of rule of law proved to be effective and powerful weapon in keeping administrative authorities within their limits . It served as a touchstone to test all administrative actions. The broad principle of rule of law was accepted by almost all legal systems as a constitutional safeguard. The first principle (Supremacy of law) recognizes a cardinal rule of democracy that every government must be subject to law and not law subject to the government. It rightly opposed arbitrary and unfettered discretion to the governmental authorities, which has tendency to interfere with rights of citizens. The second principle (equality of law) is equally important in a system linked to democratic polity. It is based on the well known maxim “however high you may be, law is above you” and “all are equal before the law” The third principle puts emphasis on the role of judiciary in enforcing individual rights and personal freedoms irrespective of their inclusion in a written constitution. Dicey feared that mere declaration of such rights in any statute would be ineffective if they could not be enforced. He was right when he said that a statute can be amended and fundamental rights can be abrogated. We have witnessed such a situation during emergency in 1975 and realized that in absence of strong and powerful judiciary, written constitution is
To consider each principles power and their own basis within the British constitution, the rule of law needs to be defined too, but this is somewhat harder to do as it has no set definition. Different theories have attempted to define it though, and most agree with the Diceyan definition.It states that the rule of law contains three core elements - one, the law is absolutely supreme, two, everyone is equal before the law, and three, the Constitution may be found in the ordinary laws of the state.
In any given constitution a nation, the recording of bills of rights has been a gradual process. All the aspects of life in society were done with respect to the law. The society requires being guided by certain principles and guidelines that would define and evaluate each and every aspect of their lives. To ensure that the entire society remained focused and concentrated in the given policies and guidelines, they recorded in the constitution and made available to each and every member of the society for the purpose of doing reviews. The action of the people would be judged in accordance with the constitution. With society running several errands towards the realization of development, many fields had to be covered. Criteria for the operation of the people would require significant efforts to accomplish the set objectives. Violations in the society occur either due to misunderstanding or lack of awareness of the rights present in the constitution. Any form of violation is evaluated by the appropriate form of punishment offered. (Hand, 1965)
The constitution: the basic principle that people of state of nations should follow the rules and regulation and are given their rights.
In any government, there are the governing principles which help in governing the nation. These principles are used as a basis for governance in the nation. The principles are clearly defined in the nation’s constitution and the bill of rights. The important principles give people a sense of national identity of belonging to a certain nation, hold the people together and allow the government to function competently. In American government, there are fundamental principles which have been established and are used in the governing of the people. The principles include rule of law, democracy, representative government, limited government and consent of the governed. These principles are protected by the constitution of the United States.
The rule of law is treating all persons equally under the law in a society that is not run by any arbitrary power. Everyone is subject to the rules of law, including those in government and court positions; it is consistent throughout society and essential to achieving justice. An example of the rule of law being successfully applied to achieve justice in the
Aristotle once said “At his best, man is the noblest of all animals; separated from law and justice he is the worst. “ Aristotle saw how we as humans were different from other animals; we were able to create these non-existent rules for humans to follow without question. Laws help shape the society we live in, whether they are positive or negative, our morality can come into play when faced with a troubling situation, why should words on paper dictate what we can and cannot achieve? Why is parchment more credible than the humans’ testimony? Should Gods sway the way laws work? These questions are all important when dealing with the creations of rules and regulations.
The five limits of government in a democratic society are consent of the governed, rights of the minority, separation of power, constitution and rule of law. Although all five play an important role in today's society, some would be considered more needed than others. The most important limit is constitution. The constitution states every law and procedure that is needed to run the country more smoothly. The second most important out of the five would be rule of law. The rule of law means no man is above the law and laws are fair. The third and fourth most important limit are the rights of the minority and the consent of the governed. Minority rights means the law applies to everyone and consent of the governed allows all citizens to choose for themselves who they want to run the country . Lastly, the least important but much needed limit of government is separation of powers and that is used to make sure not one person has total control.
Initially, laws are difficult to design because lawmakers can’t think of every possibility, every scenario, and every obstacle that may present itself in the democracy. Despite these difficulties, laws keep society together and provide unity for the citizens. Advantages for creating laws, include, but are not limited to, providing direction for the collection of taxes, declaring clear expectations for compliance and punishment of citizens and elimination of chaos.
Very vaguely, the rule of law is: “the name commonly given to the state of affairs in which a legal system is legally in good shape.”
meaning of the rule of law is a state of order in which events conform
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.)
The rule of law is a difficult concept to grasp and proves elusive to substantive definition. However, the following work considers the attempts of various social and legal theorists to define the concept and pertinent authorities are considered. Attitudes and emphasis as to the exact shape, form and content of the rule of law differ quite widely depending on the socio-political perspective and views of respective commentators (Slapper and Kelly, 2009, p16), although there are common themes that are almost universally adopted. The conclusions to this work endeavour to consolidate thinking on the rule of law in order to address the question posed in the title, which is at first sight a deceptively simple one.
The rule of law represents a challenge to State authority and power, demanding both that power be granted legitimately and that their exercise is according to law. The law is not autonomous but rests on the support of those it governs. Whilst the rule of law places law above everyone, it remains paradoxically subjected to the ultimate judgment of the people. The rule of law is considered the most fundamental doctrines of the constitution of UK. The constitution is said to be founded on the idea of the rule of law.
Fundamental Rights and Directive Principle are integral components of the same organic constitutional system and no conflict between them could have been intended by founding fathers. But the view of Supreme Court on the relationship between Fundamental Rights and Directive Principles have not been uniform throughout. There are three possible views on the relationship between Fundamental Rights and Directive Principles. The first view is that former are the superior to the latter and so the latter must give way to the former in case of repugnancy or irreconcilable conflict between the two. The second view is that Fundamental Rights and directive principle are