The Rule of law and Populism

Abstract

I will discuss two concepts; the rule of law and populism. Specifically, I want to look at the effect of one on the other. I should point out that these are my personal views but I hope still valuable despite that. Like all lawyers, I like to start by defining things. It’s important to understand exactly what we mean. There are as many definitions of the rule of law as there are people who have considered the rule of law. I often say if I asked 7 lawyers to define the Rule of Law I get 8 different definitions. In fact some institutions, for example the United Nations, seem to produce a different definition every time they look at the subject. The Rule of Law appeared in the Preamble to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948). Two further reports on the subject issued by the UN in 2002 & 2004 discuss the point. Another point, apart from the multiple definitions point, is that their results demonstrate the difficulty that a non-historical approach leads us to. The first one refers to