The Rule of Law

Broadly, therefore, today the Rule of Law is the principle that the process of government is bound up with the law and that the law is supreme. A Government in power must act according to law, i.e. within the law. For example, a Home Secretary cannot forcibly enter my house unless he has lawful power to do so: neither may he arrest me unless he has lawful power so to act. The law gives me remedies if my rights are infringed. The Rule of Law may, therefore, be said to prevail when the exercise of all forms of public authority (central government authorities, local authorities, police and other bodies) is subject to review by the ordinary courts of law to which all citizens must have equal access.

The Rule of Law may perhaps best be grasped by contrasting it with its opposite, i.e. the arbitrary (uncertain, unpredictable) use of authority against any person or property, unchecked by any other power or body. (...) Professor A. V. Dicey, in his work The Law of the Constitution (1885), gave three meanings of the Rule of Law thus:

(i) Absence of Arbitrary Power or Supremacy of the Law

It means in the first place, 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 the Government... a man may be punished for a breach of the law, but he can be puni­shed for nothing else.

(ii) Equality before the Law

The Rule of Law means again equality before the law or the equal subjection of all classes to the ordinary law of the land administered by the ordinary law courts.

(iii) The Constitution is the Result of the Ordinary Law of the Land(...)

Dicey states: 'with us the constitution is the consequence of the rights of the individual as defined in the Courts of Law.' The British Constitution is unwritten: it is the product of the operations of the ordinary law of the land. The legal rights and duties of a British subject are generally found in the common law (there are, of course, certain rules contained in particular statutes). The broad rule of the common law is that no one may interfere with or invade my person or property unless he has lawful power so to do. Otherwise he commits a wrong (contrary to common law) for which I may sue. There is no guaranteed constitutional rule in writing to this effect: it is merely the rule of the common law which has been hammered out over the centuries by the judges. Any citizen may, therefore, ascertain his rights from the legal cases decided in the past and from sta­tutes. There are, therefore, no fundamental and guaranteed rights enshrined in some sacred constitutional code or statute.

The British Constitution made simple, C. F. Padfield& T. Byrne

Task 4. Which of the following sentences best summarises the paragraph “the Rule of Law” and why?

1. The Rule of Law must be contrasted with its opposite, the arbitrary, e.g. a Home Secretary cannot forcibly enter an individual's house or arrest him or her.

2. The Rule of Law means that the Government must act within the framework of the law, which is supreme and applicable to everyone alike, and that no one can invade an individual's property or infringe his/her rights unless he has lawful power to do so.

3. The Rule of Law means that all classes are subject equally to the ordinary law of the land administered by the ordinary law courts, so that a person in a position of authori­ty is treated in exactly the same way as someone who has no political influence.

Task 5. Make a written annotation to the paragraph “the Rule of Law” in Russian.

Аннотация представляет собой сжатое описание материала и ставит своей целью дать читателю представление о том, что сообщается в первоисточнике. Автор аннотации дает лишь общее представление о содержании оригинала, отмечая важнейшие позиции, но не раскрывая их сути.

For the next session (Master’s Programme)

Task 1. Read and translate the text into Russian in writing