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    Rule of Law Is A Principle Under Which All Persons, Institutions, and Entities Are Accountable To Laws

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    Bwaima-Twaima Lushimba Chileya
    This document provides an introduction to and overview of the principle of rule of law. It discusses how the rule of law aims to ensure all persons and entities are accountable to laws rather than individual will and prevents arbitrary rule. It also examines how discretion plays a role within rule of law, and how laws must place limits on government power and prevent wide discretionary powers that could be exercised arbitrarily. Dicey's formulation of rule of law emphasized the supremacy of ordinary law and equal treatment under law.

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    Rule of Law Is A Principle Under Which All Persons, Institutions, and Entities Are Accountable To Laws

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    Bwaima-Twaima Lushimba Chileya
    42 views3 pages
    This document provides an introduction to and overview of the principle of rule of law. It discusses how the rule of law aims to ensure all persons and entities are accountable to laws rather than individual will and prevents arbitrary rule. It also examines how discretion plays a role within rule of law, and how laws must place limits on government power and prevent wide discretionary powers that could be exercised arbitrarily. Dicey's formulation of rule of law emphasized the supremacy of ordinary law and equal treatment under law.

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    This document provides an introduction to and overview of the principle of rule of law. It discusses how the rule of law aims to ensure all persons and entities are accountable to laws rather than individual will and prevents arbitrary rule. It also examines how discretion plays a role within rule of law, and how laws must place limits on government power and prevent wide discretionary powers that could be exercised arbitrarily. Dicey's formulation of rule of law emphasized the supremacy of ordinary law and equal treatment under law.

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    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    42 views3 pages

    Rule of Law Is A Principle Under Which All Persons, Institutions, and Entities Are Accountable To Laws

    Uploaded by

    Bwaima-Twaima Lushimba Chileya
    This document provides an introduction to and overview of the principle of rule of law. It discusses how the rule of law aims to ensure all persons and entities are accountable to laws rather than individual will and prevents arbitrary rule. It also examines how discretion plays a role within rule of law, and how laws must place limits on government power and prevent wide discretionary powers that could be exercised arbitrarily. Dicey's formulation of rule of law emphasized the supremacy of ordinary law and equal treatment under law.

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    of 3

    INTRODUCTION

    Rule of law is a principle under which all persons, institutions, and entities are accountable to

    laws. Therefore, this essay aims at critically explaining the rule of law-principle, and its effect on

    Order Maintenance. In addition, to explain how discretion plays a role in the rule of law

    principle. To achieve the aforementioned, critically explaining the principle of rule of law.

    Further, an explanation of how discretion plays a role in the rule of law will be given. Finally, a

    conclusion will be adduced.

    THE PRINCIPLE OF RULE OF LAW

    One of the prominent features of all democracy is the supremacy of the rule of law. It is the rule

    of the principles of law and not of men or officers. Arbitrariness on the part of the Executive is

    excluded. The rule of law emphasises that the law shall be supreme.

    In this sense the Rule of Law expresses preference to law and order in a community than

    anarchy, warfare and constant strife. According to Dicey this means that no man is above the law

    and that no man is punishable or can be unlawfully made to suffer in body or goods except for a

    distinct breach of law established in the ordinary legal manner before the ordinary courts of the

    land. Arbitrary power connotes the government of will instead of law. Arbitrary rule, therefore,

    is government conducted not according to pre-determined rules, but according to the momentary

    whims and caprices of rulers. The Zambian constitution under Article 18(8) provides that “A

    person shall not be convicted of a criminal offence unless that offence is defined and the criminal

    offence is defined and the penalty prescribed in a written law”. To this effect the Zambian

    constitution aims at protecting the fundamental rights and freedoms of any individual.
    According to dicey, this entails that all persons whatever their rank or condition are subject to the

    ordinary law and jurisdiction of the ordinary tribunals. In this sense all classes of citizens should

    have equal subjection to the ordinary law of the land administered by the ordinary courts. The

    Zambian constitution under Article 1 clause 1 provide to the same effect.

    The third doctrine means that the English constitution does not contain declarations or

    definitions or rights of its citizens as in other constitutions like Zambia’s. Suffice to say in

    English, the rights of an individual were secured not by guarantees set down in a formal

    document but by the ordinary remedies of private law available against those who unlawfully

    interfered with his liberties, whether they were private citizens or officials.

    The doctrine stresses the importance of legal acts of government. In the system like that of the

    UK where the constitution is not above Parliament, political decisions may readily be clothed

    with legality. In the absence of constitutional guarantees for individual rights, the need for legal

    authority does not protect a right from legislative invasion.

    The rule of law refers to a body of political opinions about what the detailed set of rules must

    provide in matter both substance (whether the Government has power to detain citizens

    without trial) and procedure the presumption of innocence in criminal procedure. If the law is

    not to become merely a means of achieving whatever aim the government may favour, the rule

    of law must go beyond the principle of legality. The inheritage principles and values of the

    legal system are relevant in finding out what legal authority the government has for its acts.

    THE ROLE OF DISCRETION ON THE RULE OF LAW

    The most well-known articulation of the rule of law is that of Lord Bingham. Lord Bingham

    grappled with the challenge of defining the rule of law by breaking it up into eight ‘sub-rules’.
    His discussion of these sub-rules has been one of the most influential modern discussions of the

    rule of law. Ministers and public officers at all levels must exercise the powers conferred on

    them in good faith, fairly, for the purpose for which the powers were conferred, without

    exceeding the limits of such powers and not unreasonably. Decision making can be challenged if

    there is bias or individuals are not given the right to a fair hearing.

    AV Dicey, in his book, Introduction to the Study of the Law of the Constitution (1885),

    suggested that the existence an absence of arbitrary power on the part of the state can to the

    extent of the state’s power, and the way in which it exercises such power, is limited and

    controlled by law. Such control is aimed at preventing the state from acquiring and using wide

    discretionary powers, for as Dicey correctly recognized, the problem with discretion is that it can

    be exercised in an arbitrary manner.

    CONCLUSION

    In conclusion, Supremacy of ordinary law: the fact that the English constitution was the outcome

    of ordinary law of the land and was based on the provision of remedies b the courts rather than

    on the declaration of the rights in the form of a written constitution. Dicey was opposed to

    codification of the constitution. FA von Hayek, followed Dicey. In his book, The Road to

    Serfdom (1971), argued that: “Stripped of all technicalities the Rule of Law means that

    government in all its actions is bound by rules fixed and announced beforehand.” He further

    argued that “The Rule of Law implies limits on the scope of legislation, it restricts it to the kind

    of general

    rules known as formal law; and excludes legislation directly aimed at particular people.”

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