The Rule of Law and the Importance of Procedure
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Description
This chapter states the importance of not letting the enthusiasm for a substantive conception—whereby the rule of law is treated as an ideal that calls directly for an end to human rights abuses—obscure the importance of the formal elements of the rule of law. These formal elements, as emphasized by legal philosophers, are as follows: the rule by general norms rather than particular decrees, by laws laid down in advance rather than by retrospective enactments, by norms that are made public, and rule by clear and determinate legal norms. Still, ordinary people are urging something other than the formal elements. The chapter identifies this something as the elements of legal procedure and the institutions, like courts, that embody them.
Source Publication
Getting to the Rule of Law
Source Editors/Authors
James E. Fleming
Publication Date
2011
Recommended Citation
Waldron, Jeremy, "The Rule of Law and the Importance of Procedure" (2011). Faculty Chapters. 1580.
https://gretchen.law.nyu.edu/fac-chapt/1580
