Rule of law literally means that, law is the supreme controlling authority, and every citizen who are subjects of their respective nations, must abide by the provisions of the law, and they must adhere to it with utter seriousness. To get a complete understanding on the topic of ‘rule of law’, it is necessary to take a referral on ‘rule of men’ and understand its concept, as rule of law is an evolution from rule of men. 

The concept of rule of men is derived from a Latin maxim called ‘Rex non putest peccare’.  This maxim clearly means crown immunity at the time of monarchy, in present context, sovereign immunity. This Maxim is from the English constitution, where whatever the king/queen does, is always for the benefit of their subjects. It was believed that the king/queen, was/is representative of god. The concept of the Rule of men, is whatever the top authorities said at the time of kings and queen was made law.

This maxim is dated back beyond the modern times. During the monarch, king’s words were followed or considered as supremacy, and no man or individual could go against his words. It was substantially believed that decisions made by the monarch were for the welfare of its subject and they could do no wrong. During those times, no one was allowed to question to object to monarch’s decision or sue them. Under no circumstances, the king or the queen/ sovereign can be sued. Furthermore, the state ministers were not allowed to question the monarch’s decision.

From the above notion of the rule of men, a new concept known as the ‘rule of law’ arose as civilization progressed and nations were no longer subject to the authority of monarchs, but instead grew into democratic republic countries. Countries were now independent authority and stringently followed the concept of ‘rule of law’

Rule of law is set of those principles which protects the interest of every citizen to which they are subjects of. Only the rule of law is applicable in modern times. From rule of men we got rule of law because the power was abused. Rule of law states if you punish someone state the appropriate reason. It is important in democratic country. It helps to govern a person’s day to day transaction. Rule of law is a constitutional law. It mothers all the other statues. Rule of law is implied to every citizen of the country, it also says that every individual is the subject of law and are equally obliged to follow the disclosed legal codes and procedures.

Rule of law, comprises of set of rules of formal and procedural characters of the guidelines addressing in what a way a community should be governed. These principles have generality, clarity, publicity, stability and prosperity of the norms to govern the society

According to the doctrine of rule of law, there could be 3 meaning of rule of law, these are further mentioned hereinafter:

1. Supremacy of law: law is the supreme authority and every one must abide by them. Every action must be on accordance of law and not on arbitrariness of their personal whims and fancies. No person shall be punished except for the breach of law, if they did commit a wrong they will be sanctioned, bur on the other hand if they have gone accordance to the law, they wouldn’t be sanctioned. One of the most essential concepts in the rule of law is that no law or legislation should be arbitrary, which implies that there must be a rationale backed up for passing any law and that it should primarily be for the good of society. The government cannot be sued since it is considered that the government acts for the benefit of society, which is again derived from the Latin maxim ‘Rex non putest peccare’.  
2. Equality before law: Every individual should be treated equally in the society and there mustn’t be any act with abets discrimination. Every citizen to which they are subject to must be given equal opportunities regardless of their age, gender, religion, race, caste, creed etc.
3. Predominance of the legal spirit: All the acts of an individual, must be according to the spirit of legal lines. Legal spirit should always be followed on, everyone must be treated with justice, fairness, equality and they shouldn’t be discriminated on basis on their status. In addition to that, the principle of natural justice should always be enforced. For Ex., every person must have a chance to defend themselves or be given an opportunity to prove themselves as innocent even if they have committed a crime, this follows a Latin maxim called Audi Alterem Partem which literally means ‘hear the other side’. Hence legal spirits must always be adhered to.

To safely conclude, it could be stated that notion of the rule of law is that the law is the highest authority and that no man is above the law, therefore every individual must obey and adhere to the law, and that if someone did do an act which is against the provisions of law, they would not be excused and punishment would be imposed on them to an extent of what crime they have committed, Regardless of their rank, they all are treated similarly.

Aishwarya Says:

I have always been against Glorifying Over Work and therefore, in the year 2021, I have decided to launch this campaign “Balancing Life”and talk about this wrong practice, that we have been following since last few years. I will be talking to and interviewing around 1 lakh people in the coming 2021 and publish their interview regarding their opinion on glamourising Over Work.

If you are interested in participating in the same, do let me know.

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We also have a Facebook Group Restarter Moms for Mothers or Women who would like to rejoin their careers post a career break or women who are enterpreneurs.

We are also running a series Inspirational Women from January 2021 to March 31,2021, featuring around 1000 stories about Indian Women, who changed the world. #choosetochallenge