Nicos Stavropoulos (University of Oxford – Faculty of Law) has posted The Rule of Law on SSRN. Here is the abstract:
On the approach based on the standard conception of political authority, the rule of law is typically understood as a set of contingent attributes of legal rules (clear, prospective, possible to comply with, and so on). Its subject matter is authority ruling us by conveying authoritative instructions meant to guide our action, and it purports to improve the instructions’ suitability to the task. The rule of law so understood qualifies and streamlines how authority commands, thereby improving the commands’ capacity to guide.
On an alternative approach, the rule of law is the idea that law rules, rather than power or authority so understood. An individual as such can violate the law but can’t violate the rule of law. The state can do both. If we abandon the understanding of political authority bequeathed to us by theoretical tradition, we can see that much at least that needs fixing in politics is fixed by the rule of law.
The rule of law so understood is importantly egalitarian. It flattens rather than reinforcing status asymmetries and undercuts or neutralizes hierarchy or subordination. By subjecting political power to law, it insists that all, billionaire and pauper, strong and weak, be treated as equals, and subjects all to the same standards and procedures. In law, the matter between A and B can be referred to the court, and, in the courtroom, everyone is equal in standing and equal in influence too, and that remains so even when A is Nobody and B is Elon Musk.
Highly recommended.