rule of law

Examples of rule of law in the following topics:

• The Rule of Law

  • If all political power grows out of the barrel of a gun, this can only heighten our concerns about how that power is organized and employed.
  • Government-as-bandit can be seen as a problem of the solution.
  • Government-as-bandit imposes sanctions on people in an unprincipled way, and all of the arguments against private-involuntary associations apply even more strongly when the bandit is government itself.
  • Good government, therefore, requires elimination of government-as-bandit.
  • The classical formulation of this said that we should have "the rule of law. " A more specific way of putting it is: Laws, si; pseudo-laws, no!

• Establishing Justice

  • Under the doctrine of the separation of powers, the judiciary generally does not make law or enforce law, but rather interprets law and applies it to the facts of each case.
  • The rule of law is a legal doctrine whereby governmental decisions are made by applying known legal principles.
  • Rule of law implies that every citizen is subject to the law .
  • It stands in contrast to the idea that the ruler is above the law, for example by divine right, which the European monarchy routinely invoked to justify its rule.
  • These oaths affirm that the rule of law is superior to the rule of any human leader

• Cases and the Law

  • Essentially, the body of common law is based on the principles of case precedent and stare decisis.
  • The general principle in common law legal systems is that similar cases should be decided so as to give similar and predictable outcomes, and the principle of precedent is the mechanism by which this goal is attained.
  • Black's Law Dictionary defines "precedent" as a "rule of law established for the first time by a court for a particular type of case and thereafter referred to in deciding similar cases. "
  • Stare decisis is usually the wise policy, because in most matters it is more important that the applicable rule of law be settled than that it be settled right. ...
  • Brandeis developed the idea of case law and the importance of stare decisis.

• The Power of Judicial Review

  • Judicial review can be understood in the context of two distinct—but parallel—legal systems, civil law and common law, and also by two distinct theories on democracy and how a government should be set up, legislative supremacy and separation of powers.
  • Common law judges are seen as sources of law, capable of creating new legal rules and rejecting legal rules that are no longer valid.
  • In the civil law tradition, judges are seen as those who apply the law, with no power to create or destroy legal rules.
  • First introduced by French philosopher Charles de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu , separation of powers was later institutionalized in the United States by the Supreme Court ruling in Marbury v.
  • It is based on the idea that no branch of government should be more powerful than any other and that each branch of government should have a check on the powers of the other branches of government, thus creating a balance of power among all branches of government.

• The Exclusionary Rule

  • Supreme Court announced a strong version of the exclusionary rule in the case of Weeks v.
  • For example, the Fifth Amendment's command that no person "shall be deprived of life, liberty or property without due process of law. "
  • The exclusionary rule is also designed to provide disincentive to prosecutors and police who illegally gather evidence in violation of the Fifth Amendment of the Bill of Rights.
  • The exclusionary rule is not applicable to aliens residing outside of U.S. borders.
  • It has ultimate (but largely discretionary) appellate jurisdiction over all federal courts and over state court cases involving issues of federal law, and original jurisdiction over a small range of cases.

• Law, Pseudolaws, and By-Laws

  • We will therefore stipulate that the word law will be used only to refer to the first meaning: a general rule of action enforceable by sanctions.
  • To be a general rule of action, it must apply to everybody without any exceptions whatever.
  • If there is a sanction, however, we must still ascertain whether the rule is a law or a pseudo law, and this is where we must consider generality.
  • The following are examples of rules which are not general, and which therefore are pseudolaws rather than laws:
  • Generality requires that the rule apply to the equivalent of "anybody who", and all of the above examples discriminate on the basis of race, sex, age, or wealth.

• Employment Policy

  • United States labor law is a heterogeneous collection of state and federal laws.
  • Federal law also provides more limited rights for employees of the federal government.
  • In most aspects, these two bodies of law overlap.
  • While most state and federal laws start from the presumption that workers who are not covered by a collective bargaining agreement or an individual employment agreement are "at will" employees who can be fired without notice and for no stated reason, state and federal laws prohibiting discrimination or protecting the right to organize or engage in whistleblowing activities modify that rule by providing that discharge or other forms of discrimination are illegal if undertaken on grounds specifically prohibited by law.
  • In addition, a number of states have modified the general rule that employment is at will by holding that employees may, under that state's common law, have implied contract rights to fair treatment by their employers.

• Civil Law and Criminal Law

  • Criminal law is the body of law that relates to crime.
  • It is the body of rules that defines conduct that is not allowed because it is held to threaten, harm or endanger the safety and welfare of people.
  • The law relating to civil wrongs and quasi-contract is part of civil law.
  • The objectives of civil law are different from other types of law.
  • The law of most of the states is based on the common law of England; the notable exception is Louisiana.

• Primary Sources of American Law

  • The primary sources of American Law are: constitutional law, statutory law, treaties, administrative regulations, and the common law.
  • At both the federal and state levels, the law of the United States was originally largely derived from the common law system of English law, which was in force at the time of the Revolutionary War.
  • However, U.S. law has diverged greatly from its English ancestor both in terms of substance and procedure, and has incorporated a number of civil law innovations.
  • Many federal and state statutes have remained on the books for decades after they were ruled to be unconstitutional.
  • The reason is that although the courts of the various Commonwealth nations are often influenced by each other's rulings, American courts rarely follow post-Revolution Commonwealth rulings unless there is no American ruling on point, the facts and law at issue are nearly identical, and the reasoning is strongly persuasive.

• Sunset Laws

  • A sunset provision or clause in public policy is a measure within a statute, regulation, or other law that provides for the law to cease to have effect after a specific date, unless further legislative action is taken to extend the law.
  • Extensive political wrangling before final votes may precede reauthorizations of controversial laws or agencies.
  • Among other provisions, it affects Senate rules of debate during the budget reconciliation, not least by preventing the use of the filibuster against the budget resolutions.
  • The Byrd rule was adopted in 1985 and amended in 1990 to modify the Budget Act and is contained in section 313.
  • The rule allows Senators to raise a point of order against any provision held to be extraneous, where extraneous is defined according to one of several criteria.