Rule of Law | The Canadian Encyclopedia

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Rule of Law

The rule of law is an underlying constitutional principle requiring government to be conducted according to law and making all public officers answerable for their acts in the ordinary courts (see ADMINISTRATIVE LAW).

Rule of Law

The rule of law is an underlying constitutional principle requiring government to be conducted according to law and making all public officers answerable for their acts in the ordinary courts (see ADMINISTRATIVE LAW). The principle was perhaps first formally enunciated by Bracton (1250), a judge and early writer on English law, who declared, "The King himself however ought not to be under man, but under God and under the law, for the law makes him king." The term was coined by the English legal scholar Dicey, in his Introduction to the Study of the Law of the Constitution (1885).

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