This chapter begins with a discussion of the meaning of the rule of law, one of the fundamental doctrines or principles of the UK constitution. The concept is by no means straightforward, and opinions vary as to the principles or values which underpin the doctrine. The chapter distinguishes between formal and substantive meanings of the rule of law. It discusses principles encompassed by the rule of law. These include that laws should be prospective, laws should be open and clear, and that there should be natural justice, access to the courts, and equality before the law. The chapter concludes with an assessment of the contemporary significance of the rule of law.
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This chapter explains ‘the rule of law’. It first presents a definition of the rule of law followed by a discussion of the practical protection of the rule of law. In Britain, all three of the major branches of the state — the judiciary, Parliament, and government (especially through the office of Lord Chancellor) — have functions in the development and application of rule of law principles.
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This chapter begins with a discussion of the meaning of the rule of law, one of the fundamental doctrines or principles of the UK constitution. The concept is by no means straightforward, and opinions vary as to the principles or values which underpin the doctrine. The chapter distinguishes between formal and substantive meanings of the rule of law. It discusses principles encompassed by the rule of law. These include that laws should be prospective, laws should be open and clear, and that there should be natural justice, access to the courts, and equality before the law. The chapter concludes with an assessment of the contemporary significance of the rule of law.
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Essential Cases: Public Law provides a bridge between course textbooks and key case judgments. This case document summarizes the facts and decision in M v Home Office [1994] 1 AC 377, House of Lords (also known as Re M). The case considered whether the courts had the power to issue injunctions against government departments and the ministers attached to them, and whether the rule of law required that those departments and ministers could be held in contempt of court for breach of court orders. The document also includes supporting commentary and questions from author Thomas Webb.
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Essential Cases: Public Law provides a bridge between course textbooks and key case judgments. This case document summarizes the facts and decision in M v Home Office [1994] 1 AC 377, House of Lords (also known as Re M). The case considered whether the courts had the power to issue injunctions against government departments and the ministers attached to them, and whether the rule of law required that those departments and ministers could be held in contempt of court for breach of court orders. The document also includes supporting commentary from author Thomas Webb.
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Essential Cases: Public Law provides a bridge between course textbooks and key case judgments. This case document summarizes the facts and decision in M v Home Office [1994] 1 AC 377, House of Lords (also known as Re M). The case considered whether the courts had the power to issue injunctions against government departments and the ministers attached to them, and whether the rule of law required that those departments and ministers could be held in contempt of court for breach of court orders. The document also includes supporting commentary from author Thomas Webb.
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Essential Cases: Public Law provides a bridge between course textbooks and key case judgments. This case document summarizes the facts and decision in R (on the application of Privacy International) v Investigatory Powers Tribunal [2019] UKSC 22, Supreme Court. This case revisited the legality of ouster clauses discussed in Anisminic ([1969] 2 AC 147) in the context of the reviewability of decisions made by the Investigatory Powers Tribunal. The document also includes supporting commentary from author Thomas Webb.
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The interaction between international law and domestic (or national or ‘municipal’) law demonstrates the struggle between State sovereignty and the international legal order. While the international legal order seeks to organise international society in accordance with the general interests of the international community, State sovereignty can be used to protect a State against the intervention of international law into its national legal system. This chapter discusses theories about the relations between international law and national law; national law on the international plane; international law on the national plane; and examples of international law on the national plane.
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This chapter examines the ways in which criminal law treats conspiracies. Some of the controversies examined include: whether it is necessary and/or desirable to criminalize conspiracies; the extent to which there can be a conspiracy under the Criminal Law Act 1977 if the parties have only agreed to commit the substantive offence subject to some condition; what must be agreed and who must intend what to happen for a crime of conspiracy; the mens rea of statutory conspiracies; and whether common law conspiracies are so vague as to infringe the rule of law.
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J. E. Penner and E. Melissaris
This chapter explores one of the central features of law, adjudication, and the theories attention to it has generated. It is organised as follows. Section 1 deals with American legal realism and its sceptical challenge to the idea that judges decide cases by applying determinate legal rules. Section 2 considers legal interpretivism, a theory of law originating in the work of Dworkin, and which began its life as a way of better accounting for the nature of legal argument and judicial decision-making. Finally, the chapter looks at the rule of law and the recent claim by Waldron that the values underlying adjudication deserve a more prominent place in our understanding of the value of law.
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This introductory chapter sets out the book’s scope and primary goals, and outlines some useful works on jurisprudence recommended by instructors in American law schools. It explains the central concerns of the subjects, distinguishing between descriptive legal theory, normative legal theory, and critical legal theory, and describes Lon Fuller’s entertaining hypothetical ‘Case of the Speluncean Explorers’, a popular launching pad for the comprehension of legal ideas. The important concept of the rule of law is discussed and analysed. There is an extended account of the controversial question of whether judicial review is undemocratic. The chapter concludes with an explanation of the point of legal theory.
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This chapter starts by defining the rule of law, explaining its importance, and placing its origins in Ancient Greece and the writings of Aristotle. Following a brief consideration of how the principle has developed since that time, it discusses the consideration provided by Dicey who, writing his seminal text An Introduction to the Study of the Law of the Constitution—(1885), explored the meaning of the rule of law and its place in the UK Constitution. The chapter then considers broader theories of the rule of law, dividing these into those that support what are known as ‘formal conceptions’ of the rule of law, and ‘substantive conceptions’ of the rule of law. Finally, it explores the way in which the rule of law can be said to apply in the UK Constitution, both historically and in terms of modern-day authorities.
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Essential Cases: Public Law provides a bridge between course textbooks and key case judgments. This case document summarizes the facts and decision in R v Inland Revenue Commissioners, ex parte National Federation of the Self Employed and Small Businesses Ltd [1982] AC 617, House of Lords (also known as Fleet Street Casuals). This case concerns when and how an assessment of an applicant’s standing (or interest, locus standi) should be made for the purposes of determining whether they may bring a judicial review. Lord Diplock’s judgment provided a liberal approach to the assessment of standing as compared with the approaches offered by his fellow judges. The document also includes supporting commentary from author Thomas Webb.
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Essential Cases: Public Law provides a bridge between course textbooks and key case judgments. This case document summarizes the facts and decision in Case of Proclamations [1610] 77 ER 1352 12 Co Rep 74, King’s Bench. This classic public law case concerned whether the King could rule by proclamation, or whether he was required to rule through Parliament. It provides one of the core foundations of the law limiting the scope of the royal prerogative today. The document also includes supporting commentary and questions from author Thomas Webb.
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Essential Cases: EU Law provides a bridge between course textbooks and key case judgments. This case document summarizes the facts and decision in Commission v Poland (Case C-619/18), EU:C:2019:531, [2008] ECR I-6351, 24 June 2019. The document also includes supporting commentary from author Noreen O’Meara.
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Essential Cases: EU Law provides a bridge between course textbooks and key case judgments. This case document summarizes the facts and decision in Commission v Poland (Case C-619/18), EU:C:2019:531, [2008] ECR I-6351, 24 June 2019. The document also includes supporting commentary from author Noreen O’Meara.
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This chapter starts by defining the rule of law, explaining its importance, and placing its origins in Ancient Greece and the writings of Aristotle. Following a brief consideration of how the principle has developed since that time, it discusses the writing of Dicey, whose seminal text, An Introduction to the Study of the Law of the Constitution (1885), explored the meaning of the rule of law and its place in the UK Constitution. The chapter then considers broader theories of the rule of law, dividing these into those that support what are known as ‘formal conceptions’ of the rule of law, and ‘substantive conceptions’ of the rule of law. Finally, it explores the way in which the rule of law can be said to apply in the UK Constitution, both historically and in terms of modern-day authorities.
Chapter
Essential Cases: Public Law provides a bridge between course textbooks and key case judgments. This case document summarizes the facts and decision in R v Inland Revenue Commissioners, ex parte National Federation of the Self Employed and Small Businesses Ltd [1982] AC 617, House of Lords (also known as the Fleet Street Casuals case). This case concerns when and how an assessment of an applicant’s standing (or interest, locus standi) should be made for the purposes of determining whether they may bring a judicial review. Lord Diplock’s judgment provided a liberal approach to the assessment of standing as compared with the approaches offered by his fellow judges. The document also includes supporting commentary from author Thomas Webb.
Chapter
Essential Cases: Public Law provides a bridge between course textbooks and key case judgments. This case document summarizes the facts and decision in Case of Proclamations [1610] 77 ER 1352 12 Co Rep 74, King’s Bench. This classic public law case concerned whether the King could rule by proclamation, or whether he was required to rule through Parliament. It provides one of the core foundations of the law limiting the scope of the royal prerogative today. The document also includes supporting commentary from author Thomas Webb.
Chapter
Essential Cases: EU Law provides a bridge between course textbooks and key case judgments. This case document summarizes the facts and decision in Commission v Poland (Case C-619/18), EU:C:2019:531, [2008] ECR I-6351, 24 June 2019. The document also includes supporting commentary from author Noreen O'Meara.
