FMF Special Paper
Summary
Constitutionalism – one of classical liberalism’s significant legacies in jurisprudence – is the idea that the state must be subject to law; in particular, that state power must be subject to legal limitation. Every written constitutional instrument in the world differs on the scope and extent of this limitation – granting some commonalities – but there is a universal core of rules and limits to which the state is regarded as subject.
This core is derived from the very nature and logic of the law, and has been referred to as the ‘Rule of Law.’
This brief contribution explores what the Rule of Law (alternatively, the ‘constitutional state’) means, and what ends it is ultimately directed toward. It is concluded that the Rule of Law is that legal institution that, as far as possible, attempts to minimise arbitrariness in the content, making, and application of public (state) law.
