Law, Liberty and the Rule of Law (In a Constitutional Democracy)

Law, Liberty, and the Rule of Law, pp. 77-101, Imer B. Flores & Kenneth E. Himma, eds., Springer Netherlands, 2013

Georgetown Public Law Research Paper No. 12-161

26 Pages Posted: 3 Oct 2012 Last revised: 11 Jun 2013

See all articles by Imer B. Flores

Imer B. Flores

Instituto de Investigaciones Juridicas, Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico (UNAM)

Date Written: 2013

Abstract

In the hunt for a better -- and more substantial -- awareness of the “law,” I intend to analyze the different notions related to the “rule of law” and to criticize the conceptions that equate it either to the sum of “law” and “rule” or to the formal assertion that “law rules,” regardless of its relationship to certain principles, including both “negative” and “positive” liberties. Instead, I pretend to scrutinize the principles of the “rule of law,” in general, and in a “constitutional democracy,” in particular, to conclude that the tendency to reduce the “democratic principle” to the “majority rule” (or “majority principle”), i.e. to whatever pleases the majority, as part of the “positive liberty,” is contrary both to the “negative liberty” and to the “rule of law” itself.

Keywords: law, liberty, rule of law, constitutional democracy, democratic principle, majority rule, judicialism, legalism

JEL Classification: K00, K30, K39

Suggested Citation

Flores, Imer B., Law, Liberty and the Rule of Law (In a Constitutional Democracy) (2013). Law, Liberty, and the Rule of Law, pp. 77-101, Imer B. Flores & Kenneth E. Himma, eds., Springer Netherlands, 2013, Georgetown Public Law Research Paper No. 12-161, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2156455 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2156455

Imer B. Flores (Contact Author)

Instituto de Investigaciones Juridicas, Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico (UNAM) ( email )

Circuito Maestro Mario de la Cueva s/n,
Cd. Universitaria
Mexico City, D.F. 04510
Mexico
525556227474x1304 (Phone)
525556652193 (Fax)

HOME PAGE: http://www.juridicas.unam.mx/invest/directorio/investigador.htm?p=imer

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