What is the rule of law - a simple answer to a complex question

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:54

What is the rule of law? This question was asked by philosophers and jurists of different nationalities and eras, deducing step by step its distinctive features and methods of functioning. And to date, a whole theory has been developed that allows us to consider this type of functioning of society and put it into practice.

General through particular

To answer the question of what a rule of law is, one should derive the main features to which it must obey. And there are four of them in science.

The first sign says that in such a state the law has the highest force. To understand the full depth of this statement, it is necessary to understand that law refers to the legitimate rules of conduct that are characteristic of a particular society and country. And, therefore, the law in this case means the norms established in the accepted order, which reflect the position of the majority, taking into account the opinion of the minority. It is this right that is the highestan arbitrator in the event of disputes, the approval of special orders in society and, in general, in the formation of legal norms.

The second feature is aimed at the legal protection of an individual within a particular country. And this, in turn, means that the entire set of legal norms is subordinated to the interests of the individual in society. He has the right not only to enjoy the established rights, but also to create them. However, at the same time, a person is obliged to fulfill the norms established in society.

The third sign says that the law is the right, and the right is the law. Which, in turn, presupposes the inclusion of provisions on natural rights and international norms on the role of a person in the state into the created acts of law. In addition, each act must be both legitimate and legal.

The fourth feature defines the obligation to divide power into three independent branches, equal cooperation between which leads to the provision of the first three features. These distinctive features of the rule of law allow us to give a more intelligible definition, namely:

The rule of law is a type of organization of society in which law is the legitimate basis for the existence and functioning of an individual in society and the system of division of power into strictly profiled branches.

Legal and social state - points of contact

Based on the essence of the social state, expressed in the creation of the most comfortable conditions for the development of a particular individual, one canto say that it absorbs all the signs of the phenomenon considered above.

After all, what is the rule of law? This is the organization of society, built on the legitimacy of the accepted rules of the device. And in the classification of signs of a social state, it is one of the first principles for the development of a person's potential. At the same time, the rule of law is both an opportunity and a guaranteed protection. And, therefore, the answer to the question of what is the rule of law in this context can be its definition as the main feature of the social state - an ideal model for organizing human life in society.