The Rule of Law is not simply a referee. It is not shorthand for ‘we must all play by the rules’, it is more important than that. Because the Rule of Law isn’t simply the presence of rules in our politics, but rather characterises the nature of those rules – or at least the standard those rules are supposed to aspire to. That is, to ensure fair government which aims to realise some conception of justice and prevent tyrannical rule.
On the relationship between parliament and the executive power of the crown (the resolution of the tension there-arising forming the basis of Britain’s constitutional law and its foundation in the idea of ‘constitutional monarchy’) the two legal traditions rest of different bedrocks which enable very different answers to these principal constitutional questions.
The recently elected PiS government in Poland has become even more isolated after its decision to take Poland down an authoritarian path, as the constitutional court has recently ruled against it. As its opponents grow on all sides, what does this mean for Polish democracy?
In Search of Europa 