Define the rule of law.

The rule of law is the doctrine that law, not men, rules: that governmental power must be exercised only through pre-established, general, publicly known legal rules, applied equally by independent courts — never by arbitrary will. Its Greek antecedents (Plato's ideal of the law as the "second-best" ruler where fallible humans govern; Aristotle's "rule of laws, not of men"); its medieval form (Bracton: the king is "under no man, but under God and the law"); and its modern career — from Dicey's Victorian formulation to today's "thin" and "thick" versions — make it the master principle against which all constitutional institutions are judged. Its intellectual core is the opposition to arbitrary power: power exercised at discretion, without rule, retrospect, or accountability.Distinguish (an exam favourite) the rule of law from rule by law: rule by law means the ruler uses law as an instrument — there are laws, and they are applied, but they bind only subjects, not the sovereign (the authoritarian's version). Rule of law means law is supreme over everyone, including the law-makers themselves. A decree-state can have rule by law while lacking the rule of law entirely.Also distinguish the rule of law from constitutionalism (Unit 2): they overlap in limiting power, but constitutionalism is the broader political doctrine (popular sovereignty, rights, accountability); the rule of law is its…