DEFINING RULE OF LAW

Rule of law describes a particular regulatory ideal-type.

Particular regulatory technology open, stable, clear and general
rules.
Joseph Raz writes we value the ability to choose styles and
forms of life, to fix long-term goals and effectively direct ones life
towards them. The law can help to secure such fixed points of
reference in two ways:

Stabilizing social relationships which but for the law may

disintegrate or develop in erratic and unpredictable

ways;
A policy of self-restraint designed to make the law itself
a stable and safe basis for individual planning.

The rule of law has two aspects:

That people should be ruled by the law and obey it;

That the law should be such that people will be able to
be guided by it.

All laws should be prospective, open and clear. When this

happens, retroactivity does not conflict with the rule of law
retroactive law does not exist at time of action. The law must be
open and adequately publicized.
Laws should be relatively stable. They should not be changed
too often. People will find it difficult to find out what the law is at any
given moment and will be constantly in fear that the law has been
changed since they last learnt what it was.
Others have distinguished between what are sometimes
called:

Thick conceptions of rule of law rule of law also

demands that its rules adequately protect certain

fundamental substance rights, such as those listed in

the UDH;
Thin conceptions of rule of law simple presence of
open, stable, clear and general rules.

So the spatial predicates implied by that minimal criterion

would apply to both conceptualizations.

STRUCTURAL PRESUMPTIONS: ENVIRONMENTAL

STABILITY; HOMOGENEITY AND WEALTH

Environmental stability is necessary to allow stable

rules of law to generate the predictably of outcome that
allows for planning long-term goals. If the regulatory
environment is constantly evolving and changing, so too
will the social effects that a particular rule produces.

Homogeneity rule of law also presumes that that

regulatory environment be homogeneous. An internal
structural differentiation fragmentation produces the
same regulatory problems as rapid changes.

Volatility and Fragmentation do not prevent stable

rules from achieving their intended ends. A legal system
can and invariably does include secondary rules that
respond to possibilities of change and fragmentation.
These secondary rules allow a legal system to respond
to

volatility

and

fragmentation

by

imparting

conditionalities on the duration, stability and spatial

reach of rules.

the more complex a regulatory system is makes it difficult to find

out what the law is at any given moment