Rule of Law: a Fundamental Concept Without a Coherent Meaning

Maastricht Journal of European and Comparative Law, 2017

What does the concept of rule of law mean? Does it contain any material elements? Despite the difficulties, it is worth trying to define the rule of law, but in a certain context. Now this context relates to the Nordic (mainly Finnish), German and British conceptions of the rule of law as well as to the rule of law in the European Union. The rule of law is a relatively contradictory concept from a theoretical perspective. For example, one may disagree whether the concept of democracy is a prerequisite for the rule of law. Another difficult question seems to be whether the concept of the rule of law contains a substantive element. The third issue to disagree relates to the question whether and to what extent one should take into account the contemporary European and international interpretations of the concept. In this article the emphasis is on the EU law perspective in a sense that the rule of law is connected to respect for democracy and the protection of human rights just like it...

Zbornik Znanstvenih Razprav, 2019

The rule of law is today one of the leading notions in international relations and an ob-ject of intense public debate in many countries. As a legal and political ideal, it is invoked to argue for greater recognition of law and legal institutions in modern society. This is happening even if there is no generally accepted understanding of what it actually is in either political or legal terms, and its meaning can differ considerably depending on the social and geographical environment. To facilitate the contemporary rule of law debate, this article proposes a primary distinction between what might be termed classical and institutional interpretations of this concept. It is suggested that under the classical view, the rule of law is understood as a constitutional principle, broadly expressing liberal doctrines on the proper relationship between law, the individual and the modern consti-tutional state. In the last few decades, however, we have also witnessed, especially in the internat...

The rule of law is nearly generally bolstered at the national and universal level. The exceptional bolster for the rule of law in hypothesis, in any case, is conceivable as it were since of broadly dissimilar sees of what it implies in practice.

Law and Society in China, 2020

English translation has been published by the Chinese Government (Beijing, Foreign Language Press, 2(03), available at http://www.china.org.cnlenglishifeaturesJ49109.htm. 4. See, e.g, Legislation Law of the People's Republic of China (promulgated by Order No.

Perspectives on Chinese Business and Law

China, with its millenarian empire ranging from the first Qin dynasty (221-206 BCE) to the threshold of last century (1911), has known one of the longest-lived and mighty political-institutional structures ever existed. However, according to a still widespread opinion, China has not experienced a development of the idea (and ideal) of 'law,' that is to say a 'legal tradition' comparable to the Western one. In the face of differences, especially cultural and political, as striking between East and West, this article analyzes the concept of right and draw a comparison with Western law, to observer the peculiarities of an eastern view on the subject.

Functionalising the rule of law in the European Union, 2023

Beijing Law Review, 2019

Rule of law discourse has been excited in recent years with China's reemergence as a state with global influence and its own interpretation of rule of law; a socialist rule of law with Chinese characteristics. If rule of law is to become a main theme of China's socialist justice system building in the next ten-year period, then some of the changes will necessarily reach well beyond China's internal system, potentially internationally. In terms of China's approach, it is possible to understand that developments of rule of law are being made with due recognition of exactly how much implementation work is actually required to shift the country forward. China's progress towards a socialist rule of law with Chinese characteristics will almost certainly be slow, measured and most importantly completed on China's terms, not the West's terms.

1999

Under the extraordinary formula of "one country, two systems" the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) of the People's Republic of China presents an unusual experiment in legal translation and cultural exchange in bringing together the bourgeois English common law and the socialist, Chinese civil code legal system for the purpose of Hong Kong's preservation as a dynamic centre of laissez-faire capitalism over the next half-century. A central element in that preservation is the doctrine of the "rule of law" connoting a separation of powers embodied in a judiciary independent of executive power. Although this term is frequently used in discussions of Hong Kong, it should be noted that it makes no appearance in either the Basic Law of the HKSAR (the quasi-constitutional instrument establishing Hong Kong as a Special Administrative Region of the PRC) or the preceding Sino-British Joint Declaration of 1984, nor, more significantly, is it a term with much currency in Chinese concepts of law (where the term "rule by law" — fa zhi — takes its place). This paper explores the tensions in implementing and maintaining the “rule of law” through a complex process of legal transition and translation.

Social Science Research Network, 2003

My grandmother used to say that too much, even of a good thing, is bad for you. She was no philosopher, my grandmother; she just used to say this when I asked for another serving of her wonderful home-made jam. Needless to say, she would not have connected her thoughts about the good with the rule of law. In fact, I think she lived her ninety-odd years without knowing what the rule of law is. She lived through most of the 20th century in Romania, where "rule of law" was not a very popular political slogan. Nowadays, however, when the Eastern European countries have freed themselves of communism and wish to join the western world, implementing the rule of law is one of the main social changes that they seek to establish. Perhaps nowhere is the rule of law so cherished as in those places where it was largely ignored for decades. Indeed, at least in the Western world the rule of law has long been associated with the idea of a well ordered society. We criticize countries which do not strictly adhere to the rule of law, and we pride ourselves for having it.1 In spite of its popularity, however, the various ideas associated with the rule of law are often conflicting and not infrequently rather confused. When a complicated idea becomes a popular political slogan, this is not surprising. The most common mistake about the rule of law is to confuse it with the ideal of the rule of good law, the kind of law, for instance, that respects freedom and human dignity.2 But of course, understood 1 Needless to say, admiration of the rule of law is not universal; Marxists have been traditionally hostile to the rule of law, and more recently, other critical theories have come to share this hostility. See, for example, C. Sypnowich, "Utopia and the Rule of Law", in D. Dyzenhaus (ed.), Recrafting the Rule of Law:

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