This Handbook provides a state-of-the-art survey of the study of the rule of law across law, the humanities, and social sciences, as well as insights into the practice of building the rule of law within and among states. Its twenty-eight chapters are by many of the world’s leading scholars of the rule of law, as well as distinguished junior scholars, from a dozen countries and representing a number of academic disciplines. The chapters are ordered to progress, first, from theory to the practice of the rule of law and, second, from the rule of law within, to beyond, the state. They divide into three parts. The first part examines the concept, history, and value of the rule of law. This section considers the importance of political and intellectual history in shaping the concept over the centuries, and takes novel philosophical approaches to the connection between the rule of law and other important ideals such as justice, equality, and civil disobedience. The second part transitions from theoretical studies to accounts of practical exercises in building the rule of law. The chapters consider the challenges of rule of law reform, including the use of local intermediaries facilitating interactions between international legal aid organizations and state governments, the challenges of legal translation across vastly different societies, the pathways of knowledge among the powerless about the protective potential of the rule of law, as well as the possible future for artificial intelligence systems in helping to reinforce rule-of-law principles. The third part examines the rule of law from a number of perspectives within particular supranational and national states, such as the European Union, China, Singapore, and South Africa, among others, and concludes by considering the prospects of the rule of law beyond the state, both within and among international institutions such as the United Nations, as well as non-territorial spaces like the world’s oceans. This Handbook is aimed at rule of law scholars across law, the humanities, and the social sciences, law and development practitioners, policymakers, and advanced students and researchers who seek a state-of-the-art overview of the history, theory, and practice of the rule of law.
Acknowledgements
List of contributors
List of tables
Introduction
PART I: The Concept, its History, and Value
1 The Rule-of-Law Imaginary: Regarding Iustitia
Jens Meierhenrich
2 At Present, The Future of the Rule of Law is History
Paul Burgess
3 The Rule of Law Through the Ages
Federica Carugati
4 What is the Rule of Law? Political, Traditional, Rhetorical
Julian A. Sempill
5 Equality and the Rule of Law
Sophia Moreau
6 Transnational Justice and the Rule of Law
Colleen Murphy
7 Official Rule Departures
William E. Scheuerman
8 Lon Fuller and the Rule of Law
Frederick Schauer
9 The Value of a Procedural Rule of Law: A Pragmatist Interactional Theory
Sanne Taekema
10 The Values of the Rule of Law
Michael Sevel
PART II: Politics and Practice
11 The Rule of Law and the Social Ethos
Christine Sypnowich
12 “Politically Smart Legal Adaptation”: A Critical Perspective on Contemporary Rule of Law Reform
Deval Desai and Pilar Domingo
13 How Intermediaries Broker the Rule of Law Transnationally
Nick Cheesman and Kristina Simion
14 Wigs for the Whigs: Why the Oppressed in Partial Rule of Law States are not Mystified and Why We Should Listen to Them
Paul Gowder
15 States of Emergency and the Rule of Law
Alan Greene
16 Can the Rule of Law Really Replace the Rule of Men and Women?
Mark Tushnet
17 The Many Functions of the Rule of Law in Different Contexts
Laura Nader
18 Rule of Law and Translation
Maj Grasten
19 Artificial Intelligence and the Rule of Law
Aziz Z. Huq
PART III: The State and Beyond
20 South Africa: A Valuable Viewpoint for Considering Contemporary Debates about the Rule of Law
Kate O’Regan
21 Legality, the Rule of Law, and the Path to Inter-legality in the Extra-State Setting
Gianluigi Palombella
22 The Rule of Law in Human Rights: The European Example
Eszter Polgári and András Sajó
23 Authoritarian Rule of Law Deploys Political Gaslighting: Singapore Legislates Against Fake News
Jothie Rajah
24 Conceptualizing the Chinese Party-State Without the Rule of Law
Samuli Seppänen
25 Republicanism and the International Rule of Law
Frank Lovett
26 Constitutionalism for International Law
Carmen Pavel
27 The United Nations and the Rule of Law
Hannah Birkenkötter
28 The Rule of Law at Sea
Sofia Galani and Michael Sevel
Biography
Michael Sevel is Senior Lecturer in Jurisprudence at the University of Sydney Law School.
