![]() ![]() The power of any single branch of government is similarly restrained at the state level.ĭuring his second term, President richard m. The authority granted to one branch of government is limited by the authority granted to the coordinate branches and by the Bill of Rights, federal statutory provisions, and historical practice. Under the Constitution, no single branch of government in the United States is given unlimited power. In the eighteenth century, absolute sovereignty was transferred from the British monarchy to Parliament, an event that was not lost on the colonists who precipitated the American Revolution and created the U.S. ![]() This requirement is sometimes explained with the phrase "no one is above the law." During the seventeenth century, however, the English monarch was vested with absolute sovereignty, including the prerogative to disregard laws passed by the House of Commons and ignore rulings made by the House of Lords. The rule of law also requires the government to exercise its authority under the law. When a court is asked to shut down a paint factory that is emitting pollutants at an illegal rate, for example, the rule of law requires the government to demonstrate that the factory owner failed to operate the business in accordance with publicly known environmental standards. Before the government may impose civil or criminal liability, a law must be written with sufficient precision and clarity that a person of ordinary intelligence will know that certain conduct is forbidden. Well-established and clearly defined laws allow individuals, businesses, and other entities to govern their behavior accordingly ( United States v. Thus, a Florida law that prohibited Vagrancy was held void for vagueness because it was so generally worded that it encouraged erratic prosecutions and made possible the punishment of normally innocuous behavior ( Papachristou v. Government officials must not be given unfettered discretion to prosecute individuals for violating a law that is so vague or of such broad applicability that evenhanded administration is not possible. The more prosecutorial decisions are based on the personal discretion of a government official, the less they are based on law.įor example, the due process clause of the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments requires that statutory provisions be sufficiently definite to prevent Arbitrary or discriminatory enforcement by a prosecutor. Ill-defined laws confer too much discretion upon government officials who are charged with the responsibility of prosecuting individuals for criminal wrongdoing. Constitution.įor similar reasons, the rule of law is abridged when the government attempts to punish someone for violating a vague or poorly worded law. This principle is reflected by the prohibition against Ex Post Facto Laws in the U.S. Government exceeds its authority when a person is held to answer for an act that was legally permissible at the outset but was retroactively made illegal. The rule of law requires that government impose liability only insofar as the law will allow. When the government seeks to punish someone for an offense that was not deemed criminal at the time it was committed, the rule of law is violated because the government exceeds its legal authority to punish. ![]() Under the rule of law, no person may be prosecuted for an act that is not punishable by law. But when a government official acts without the imprimatur of any law, he or she does so by the sheer force of personal will and power. When a government official acts pursuant to an express provision of a written law, he acts within the rule of law. A distinction is sometimes drawn between power, will, and force, on the one hand, and law, on the other. The rule of law requires the government to exercise its power in accordance with well-established and clearly written rules, regulations, and legal principles. No written law may be enforced by the government unless it conforms with certain unwritten, universal principles of fairness, morality, and justice that transcend human legal systems. ![]() In a third context the term means rule according to a higher law. No branch of government is above the law, and no public official may act arbitrarily or unilaterally outside the law. In a second context the term means rule under law. No individual can be ordered by the government to pay civil damages or suffer criminal punishment except in strict accordance with well-established and clearly defined laws and procedures. In one context the term means rule according to law. The rule of law is an ambiguous term that can mean different things in different contexts. Rule according to law rule under law or rule according to a higher law. ![]()
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