The Rule of Law

A detailed Summary of The Rule of Law


The rule of law, although popularised by Dicey was not invented by him. Prior and Post Dicey, different theorists had considered it, namely, Von Hayek, Socrates, Raz and E.P Thompson. In 1885, A.V Dicey's book supported the theory of the English constitution as opposed to the written constitutions of other countries. However, there have been schools of thought that Diceys ideas are now outdated but recently, especially with the senior members of the judiciary, they have come back into favour.

It is common knowledge that Britain's constitution is an unwritten one as it is not contained in one document and much of it has no legal status. The Diceyan argument was that not only was this irrelevant, but it was in fact of beneficial advantage. Dicey summarised the concept of he rule of law under three headings.

Primarily, the principle concerned the rule of law an


Simon Brown LJ was willing to question government actions which do not conform to fundamental principles of human rights in R v Ministry of Defence ex Parte Smith

The concept of equality is one, which has always been open to a lot of critique as exceptions to this can be easily pointed out even by lay men. Examples are the monarch's immunity under the Crown Proceeding Act , Police powers above the ordinary citizen, Governments ability to act in the name of the crown and exercise prerogative powers. All this brings the rule of law under particular stress where its requirements clash with other concerns, in particular between international law and domestic law. The UK adopts a dualist approach, which means that international law is not automatcally part of UK law until incorporated by statute.

Dicey's second principle 'equality before the law' is self-explanat

Some common words found in the essay are:
AV Dicey's, Act Police, Entick Carrington, Police Commissioner, Act Dicey, United Kingdom, Brown LJ, , Post Dicey, rule law, EP Thompson, discretionary powers, international law, principle concerned, government activities, law authorised, government actions, wide discretionary, wide discretionary powers,

Approximate Word count = 586
Approximate Pages = 2 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Politics

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