Rule of Law - the Ideal or Catastrophe?
Rule of Law - the Ideal or Catastrophe?

Summary/Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to discuss the problem of legalism in the context of democratic law and totalitarian law. Contemporary liberal democracy is the state under the rule of law. The rule of law, at is core, requires that government officials are bound by and act in consistency with the law. But the basic conception of the rule of law does not impose any requirements with respect to the content of the law. This means that oppressive or immoral rules laws can be enacted, for example apartheid and religious or caste distinctions. Because of it after the end of the Second World War a differentiation between 'rule of law' and 'rule by law' was made. The rule of law refers to content-related axiology of the rule of law (human rights), while rule by law refers only to the formal axiology of law.

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