Just to conclude with something from Thomas Paine's Common Sense
"For as in absolute governments the king is law, so in free countries the law ought to be king; and there ought to be no other."
Link this up do the decision in Public Prosecutor v. Kok Wah Kuan which has been reproduced in this blog at the conclusion where the judge states "But as judges we have to apply the law as it exists. We simply have no choice whatever in the matter." and you have a starting point on the rule of law.
Thursday, July 3, 2008
The Rule of Law
World's top legal experts unveil 'rule of law' index aimed at measuring how nations behave ... The Associated Press
What is the the rule of law?
The concept can be traced from in Plato’s, Statesman & Law and Aristotle’s Politic but simply put by AV Dicey; supremacy of law in contrast to arbitrary power,
equality before the law for all classes in ordinary courts and the law of the constitution.
He said this in In his treatise, Law of the Constitution. Respectfully, it is a “CONCEPT” and not part of an “equation”. Yes, the Rule of Law is not a rule after all. Forgive me, for all those who are going to banter with me on this one.
However in over quest to rationalise all, an equation (or several of them) have surfaced to give us an indication “who’s been naughty and who’s been good” (pun intended)
Refer to Earthtrends
http://earthtrends.wri.org/text/environmental-governance/variable-1280.html
We have Kaufmann’s Rule of Law Index.
http://humandevelopment.bu.edu/dev_indicators/show_info.cfm?index_id=121&data_type=1
We even have a map
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Maprl.png#file
Just to conclude with something from Thomas Paine's Common Sense
"For as in absolute governments the king is law, so in free countries the law ought to be king; and there ought to be no other."
Link this up do the decision in Public Prosecutor v. Kok Wah Kuan which has been reproduced in this blog at the conclusion where the judge states "But as judges we have to apply the law as it exists. We simply have no choice whatever in the matter." and you have a starting point on the rule of law.
Just to conclude with something from Thomas Paine's Common Sense
"For as in absolute governments the king is law, so in free countries the law ought to be king; and there ought to be no other."
Link this up do the decision in Public Prosecutor v. Kok Wah Kuan which has been reproduced in this blog at the conclusion where the judge states "But as judges we have to apply the law as it exists. We simply have no choice whatever in the matter." and you have a starting point on the rule of law.
