Law serves many purposes, including keeping peace in a country, maintaining the status quo, preserving individual rights, protecting minorities from majorities, and promoting social justice and orderly social change. Some legal systems are better suited to these ends than others. Authoritarian regimes, for example, often suppress political opposition and minority groups. European empires have created legal systems in their colonies that enforced peace, often imposing their laws and systems into their new territories.
Principles of the Rule of Law
The rule of law is the set of rules that apply to a society. These rules are generally procedural and institutional. For instance, courts and judges must be independent from other branches of government. These principles are linked to the constitutional principle of separation of powers. Separation of powers is justified by the danger of unhealthy concentrations of power in society and by the importance of distinct stages in making and applying laws. The rule of law is an important foundation of democratic governance.
While many jurists follow Raz 1977 in the belief that the rule of law is purely formal, others believe that it has a substantive dimension. In order to be a rule of law, laws must be drafted in a way that can be easily understood by the people.
Formal aspects
The study of formal aspects of law is an important area of legal theory and philosophy. It focuses on the characteristics of law and the way in which it is applied in a society. Formal aspects are also a crucial part of legisprudence, a branch of law that examines the role of informatics in drafting legislation.
Formal aspects of law are the procedural and abstract rules that govern a country’s affairs. They are often not related to substantive content, but they are still significant and should be interpreted carefully. One example of formal aspects is the United States Constitution, which seeks to limit the power of government while protecting citizens. Informal aspects of law, on the other hand, refer to customs and unwritten rules. If the formal aspects of law are absent from a legal system, it could lead to an illegitimate or ineffective process of justice.
Procedural aspects
A law’s procedural aspects determine how it will operate and which rights it will confer. These aspects vary widely and are governed by specific legal principles. The procedural aspects of law can help clarify the practical implications of proposed legislation. These aspects are influenced by the intention and purpose of the law and are important to understand.
Substantive ideals
Substantive ideals in law are important for many reasons. For example, they can help us advance gender equality in law by ensuring that all participants are treated equally and protected from discrimination and exploitation. In addition, they are essential to the rule of law, which aims to ensure that justice is administered impartially and that no one is harmed in the process. Some of the essential principles of the rule of law include the separation of powers and the avoidance of arbitrariness in law.
Fuller argued that law is a reflection of the morals that make us human. His vision of the social contract was the basis for the eight formal principles of legality that he deduced. However, this social contract is not the same as the private contract.