Rule of Law

“We are entitled to be proud that even in that extreme national emergency [the Second World War] there was one voice – eloquent and courageous – which asserted older, nobler, more enduring values: the right of the individual against the state duty to govern in accordance of law; the role of the courts as guarantor of legality and individual right, the priceless gift, subject only to constraints by law established, of individual freedom.”(Lord Bingham of Cornhill, The case of Liversidge v Anderson: the Rule of Law Amid the Clash of Arms,2009) From my view, Lord Bingham expressed the importance of rule of law through the comment he gave in the case Liversidge v Anderson(1942).As he claimed in the rule of law that the right of the individual is getting protected against the state, and there is a duty for the state to conduct their power based on the law without abuses it. Courts are playing an important role to make sure the justice and individual right is achieved. Rule of law is a fundamental principle of the United Kingdom uncodified or unwritten constitution. The principle is meant to control the exercise of public power within its limits. Besides that, Lord Steyn commented “…In its second sense the rule of law is a general principle of constitutional law. Its central focus is to constrain the abuse of official power. It protects a citizen’s right to legal certainty in respect of interference with his liberties. It guarantees access to justice. It ensures procedural fairness over much of the range of administrative decision-making by officials.” Lord Steyn has given his opinion on the rule of law that the rationale behind it is to safeguard the citizen’s right against the abuse of power and ensure justice is achieved. Rule of law is term of political philosophy theory which lays down fundamental requirement of law. In 1959, Professor Joseph Raz notes that, the International Congress of Jurist came up with a definition ‘a complete social philosophy.’ giving a