The Rule of Law Quotes

“In a world divided by differences of nationality, race, colour, religion and wealth [the rule of law] is one of the greatest unifying factors, perhaps the greatest, the nearest we are likely to approach to a universal secular religion.”
― Tom Bingham, The Rule of Law

“the core of the existing principle of the rule of law: that all persons and authorities within the state, whether public or private, should be bound by and entitled to the benefit of laws publicly made, taking effect (generally) in the future and publicly administered in the courts.”
― Tom Bingham, The Rule of Law

“There are doubtless those who would wish to lock up all those who suspected of terrorist and other serious offences and, in the time-honored phrase, throw away the key. But a suspect is by definition a person whom no offence has been proved. Suspicions, even if reasonably entertained, may prove to be misplaced, as a series of tragic miscarriages of justice has demonstrated. Police officers and security officials can be wrong. It is a gross injustice to deprive of his liberty for significant periods a person who has committed no crime and does not intend to do so. No civilized country should willingly tolerate such injustices.”
― Tom Bingham, The Rule of Law

“The rule of law is held to be not only good in itself, because it embodies and encourages a just society, but also as a cause of other good things, notably growth.”
― Tom Bingham, The Rule of Law

“ignorance of the law may constitute an excuse for the citizen when the formulation of the law is such as to lead to obscure and contradictory results.17”
― Tom Bingham, The Rule of Law

“A state which savagely represses or persecutes sections of its people cannot in my view be regarded as observing the rule of law, even if the transport of the persecuted minority to the concentration camp or the compulsory exposure of female children on the mountainside is the subject of detailed laws duly enacted and scrupulously observed.”
― Tom Bingham, The Rule of Law

“the content of the law should be accessible to the public’.”
― Tom Bingham, The Rule of Law

“It is that the successful conduct of trade, investment and business generally is promoted by a body of accessible legal rules governing commercial rights and obligations.”
― Tom Bingham, The Rule of Law

“we need leaders who better understand the rule of law’.”
― Tom Bingham, The Rule of Law

“Dicey’s dismissive reference to foreign constitutions would now find few adherents. But he was a man of his time, and was concerned to celebrate, like Tennyson, A land of settled government, A land of just and old renown, Where Freedom slowly broadens down From precedent to precedent.”
― Tom Bingham, The Rule of Law

“Whatever the truth of this story, it is certain that one of the very first acts of the Long Parliament in 1640 was to abolish the Court of Star Chamber, in which evidence obtained by torture was received, and since then no torture warrant has been issued in England. By one of the first enactments of the Westminster Parliament following the Act of Union in 1707, Scotland followed suit. But in continental Europe the practice continued for many years: drawings survive of handsome young men in wigs and fine stockings inflicting horrific torments on their bound victims. In France, torture was abolished in 1789; in different parts of”
― Tom Bingham, The Rule of Law

“sources that are publicly available.’5 The European Court of Human Rights at Strasbourg has spoken to similar effect: [T]he law must be adequately accessible: the citizen must be”
― Tom Bingham, The Rule of Law

“Any reference in these regulations to a regulation is a reference to a regulation contained in these regulations.”
― Tom Bingham, The Rule of Law

“The rule of law does not require that official or judicial decision-makers should be deprived of all discretion, but it does require that no discretion should be unconstrained so as to be potentially arbitrary. No discretion may be legally unfettered.”
― Tom Bingham, The Rule of Law