Rule of Law

Abstract

The concept of Rule of Law is a very complex one as it has been approached in different ways by different authors and by different legal traditions. In Common Law we speak of “Rule of Law” whereas in Continental Law we had other expressions, as the French one “Etat de droit” or the German one “Staatsrecht”. But in fact these expressions are not entirely equivalent. The author presents then different notions of Rule of Law; they go from more formal and minimalist one to others that are more robust and incorporate a material dimension of the Rule of Law. The exam of these different notions and the relationships between democracy and Rule of Law allows us to build a basic notion of Rule of Law, based on the basic elements that nowadays seem necessary to this notion, as the principle of legality or the separation of powers. And then we can add “adjectives” to qualify this basic notion of Rule of Law in order to distinguish between different forms of Rule of Law, as the “Estado de derecho legislativo” or the “Estado de derecho constitucional” or “Estado social de derecho”