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According to Dicey, the rule of law had three elements. Had three elements. First, that there should be no sanction without breach, meaning that nobody should be punished by the state unless they had broken a law. Secondly, that one law should govern everyone, including both ordinary citizens and state officials. Thirdly, that the rights of the individual were not secured by a written constitution, but by the decisions of judges in ordinary law.
b) Do they emphasise the same elements?
TASK IV Use the verbs in brackets in their PRESENT, PAST PARTICIPLE or GERUND forms:
The rule of law is both a political and moral idea, since it affects the way the law is (develop) and (apply). It concerns ideas of regularity, access to the courts, fair procedure and (honour) expectations. For example, a governmental practice of constantly (change) the law could be (analyse) in “rule of law” terms as (induce) instability.
Governmental decisions, and decisions made by courts, are subject the so-(call) “principles of natural justice”. There are elementary principles of fair procedure (involve) a right to fair hearing before an unbiased tribunal. The courts have also (develop) various presumptions which they use when (interpret) statutes. For example, powers which attempt to prevent government decisions from (be challenge) in the courts are (construe) strictly with a view to (uphold) the principle of equality before the law although in the last resort the courts will give way to a clear expression of government policy (contain) in a statute.
TASK V PRE-READING DISCUSSION:
a) Explain the connection between such concepts as the rule of law and disobedience to the law.
b) Read the text and say whether you and the author think alike.
The rule of law also means that a person has a moral duty to obey even a bad law and that legal rights cannot be overridden even for the public good. In X Ltd. v. Morgan-Grampian Ltd, Lord Bridge said that “to contend that the individual litigant... has a right of "conscientious objection" which entitles him to set himself above the law is a doctrine which directly undermines the rule of law and is wholly unacceptable in a democratic society”. The Hobbesian view that any government is better than chaos supports this, since we cannot pick and choose which laws we should obey without destroying the very idea of law.
On the other hand it could be argued that a liberal concept of law should have room for the notion that a strongly held individual moral belief is a defence at least in cases where evil intention is a requirement of guilt. Indeed it could be argued that law which is so evil as to violate the basic values of the community is not a law at all, being contrary to the rule of law in its strong sense. This argument raises philosophical issues that were used by UK judges against Hitler Nazi Laws in the Nuremburg War Crimes Tribunal which followed the Second World War. The Nuremburg trials were based upon the assumption that some of the laws of Nazi Germany were not valid laws as they were repugnant to the basic standards of morality accepted by all civilised nations. On a more everyday level conscientious objection might influence a jury to acquit someone who breaks a law for a good reason. A jury can acquit an accused without giving reasons and cannot be punished for its verdict.
TASK VI |Use negative prefixes to form the words with the opposite meanings: moral, legal, accepted, directly, to value, to use, valid, democratic, personal
TASK VII Make up pairs with the opposite meanings for the following words and expressions:
Rights and …
Public or …
Followed or …
Chaos or …
Contrary to or…
Crime and …
Better or …
Guilt or …
To acquit or …
Wholly or …
War and …
To break a law or to…
TASK VIII a) Read the text.
b) Comment on, agree or disagree with major arguments expressed.
c) Find examples to illustrate some of the arguments and statements.
d) Does the rule of law have the same meanings in your legal system?
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