Create a 6 page essay paper that discusses PUBLIC LAW.Download file to see previous pages... It is the extensive body of conventions and traditions, common law and judicial review-virtually all of whi

Create a 6 page essay paper that discusses PUBLIC LAW.

It is the extensive body of conventions and traditions, common law and judicial review-virtually all of which have been reduced to writing, even if not codified-that has contributed to create what might be called the UK's 'living' constitution, which is firmly rooted in what constitutional experts deem to be the rule of law.

Fundamental to an understanding of the rule of law as a practical concept applied to modern constitutional democracies is the idea that checks and balances are necessary to separate, limit and control the powers of the legislative, executive and judicial branches of government. Insofar as concepts and theories about government are concerned, the quintessential point expounded by Albert Venn Dicey, as well as many who preceded and have followed him, is that it is the rule of law, rather than the rule of man, which all government authority is subject to and constrained by.

In Dicey's seminal Introduction to the Study of the Law of the Constitution first published in 1885, which gives a classic exposition on the rule of law, he posited that the rule of law consisted of three key attributes: the supremacy of 'regular law' as opposed to arbitrary power. equality of all before ordinary courts applying ordinary law of the land. and the rights of individuals as defined and enforced by the courts. Dicey's doctrine of the sovereignty of Parliament meant two basic things: that Parliament may make or unmake any law whatsoever, and, conversely, that no one has the authority to set aside or override the duly enacted legislation of Parliament.

In the absence of the rule of law, according to Dicey and other liberal democratic constitutionalists, there would exist instead a situation whereby the will of an individual, or even a group such as a political party, would be the governing force in a given state or society. It is these two opposing notions, the rule of law versus the rule of man, with which Dicey was concerned within the framework of the contrasting concepts of legitimacy and arbitrariness of government.

Dicey's views on the rule of law derived from the basic idea that the state must adhere to predetermined rules in its dealings and relationship with its citizens, rather than govern in secrecy, arbitrarily or unaccountably, all of which are characteristic attributes of tyrannical, dictatorial and authoritarian regimes. In the case of the UK, as has been stated, Dicey's basic view about legitimacy was that only Parliament had the sovereign power to make and unmake laws. Such legitimacy of Parliament implies an external legal rule or principle by reference to which state authority or government is constituted, identified and controlled, and it is for this, as opposed to ad-hoc decision making under the rule of man, that the rule of law is designed to serve.

Important contributions to constitutional theory on these matters have been made by Friedrich A. Hayek, who as the thesis for one of his many books stated "that a condition of liberty in which all are allowed to use their knowledge for their purposes, restrained only by rules of just conduct of universal application is likely to produce for them the best conditions for achieving their aims.