Rule of Law:
An independent judiciary, one that is independent of government and not dependent on it or subservient to it. Unless the public accepts that the judiciary are independent, they will have no confidence in the honesty and fairness of the decision in courts. This independence is exemplified in the judicial oath.
The independence of the judiciary will ensure that no one is above the law and the law is applied equally to all.
Judiciary has the responsibility not to interfere with or obstruct the lawful policies of an elected government. Only by doing so, the judiciary uphold the “rule of law” in the interest of good government and the welfare and happiness of the people.
Statist rule of law consolidates rather than constrains state power, as new wine demands new wineskins, so a more nuanced lens is needed to evaluate the communitarian “rule of law” practiced in Singapore and its role in good government and governance.
Populist understanding of the rule of law is linked to
Liberalism
Neutral state
Rights based orientation
* there is no universal purchase as any societies reject a whole sale adoption of the rule of law. (Germany and France created their own verisons of the rule of law.) The rule of law is not a panacea, it is a necessary but insufficient good.
The rule of law is not to be taken and applied arbitrarily. In a metropolitan society, the plurality of societies will yield variations in matters such as the interpretation and scrope of rights, duties and goods.
Different countries have differing thresholds for what is perceived as acceptable public conduct; differing standards have also been established when it comes to the protection of public institutions and figures from abrasive or insulting conduct. There are no clearly established immutable universal standards. Standards set down in one country cannot be blindly or slavishly adopted and/or applied without a proper appreciation of the context in