The Rule of Law and State Legitimacy

Legitimacy ◽  
2019 ◽  
pp. 106-136 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Krygier
Keyword(s):  
Rule Of Law ◽  
The Rule Of Law ◽  
State Legitimacy ◽  
Formal Rules

This chapter, on the rule of law and state legitimacy, begins by pointing out that how the rule of law contributes to state legitimacy turns on how the rule of law is understood. It recommends looking first to the point of the rule of law, which is, it suggests, to temper the arbitrary exercise of power. The chapter suggests that such tempering is something without which a state cannot be legitimate. It then insists that the rule of law does not depend simply on the formal rules and procedures of states, but also on the actual and the perceived functioning of those rules and procedures, on tempering both state and non-state arbitrariness, and on being effective.

Falling Short of Constitutional Norms: Does “Normative (In)Congruence” Explain the Courts' Inability to Promote the Right to Water in South Africa?

2018 ◽  
Vol 43 (03) ◽  
pp. 796-826 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Stacey
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Social Justice ◽  
Rule Of Law ◽  
Empirical Investigation ◽  
Water Law ◽  
The Rule Of Law ◽  
Judicial Intervention ◽  
Constitutional Right ◽  
The Right ◽  
Formal Rules

In South Africa, municipal noncompliance with legislation promoting the constitutional right to sufficient water is both a failure of the rule of law and a betrayal of that right. Judicial intervention has prompted formalistic compliance with water law, but the underlying commitment to sufficient water remains unfulfilled. Does the inability of courts to achieve social justice despite enforcing social legislation confirm the thesis that commitments to the rule of law and to social justice are inconsistent, that upholding the rule of law may not advance social justice? This article offers an alternative to this “inconsistency thesis,” arguing that the rule of law can accommodate social justice if it demands normative congruence alongside congruence with formal rules. Empirical investigation reveals that structural challenges and the multifarious normative demands on officials create a condition of normative incongruence that impedes the pursuit of social justice, even as courts compel congruence with formal rules.

scholarly journals Beyond Democratic Tolerance: Witch Killings in Timor-Leste

2015 ◽  
Vol 34 (3) ◽  
pp. 37-64
Author(s):  
Rebecca Strating ◽  
Beth Edmondson
Keyword(s):  
Civil Rights ◽  
Rule Of Law ◽  
Political Institutions ◽  
Political Equality ◽  
The Rule Of Law ◽  
State Legitimacy ◽  
Liberal Democratic ◽  
Timor Leste ◽  
States Experience ◽  
Democratic Systems

Newly democratising states experience challenges in reconciling “traditional” or “customary” dispute resolution practices with newly established state-based legal systems based on the rule of law. For Timor-Leste, these tensions are pronounced in continuing debates concerning the killing or injuring of women accused of witchcraft. Defences of extrajudicial punishments tend to conflate democracy with local support and fail to deal with the key institutions of democratic systems, including the rule of law, political equality, and civil rights. In Timor-Leste's case, where equality and social rights were incorporated into the Constitution as fundamental governmental obligations, localised extrajudicial punishments threaten internal and external state legitimacy and highlight the difficulties of ensuring the primacy of state-based institutions. Extrajudicial punishments challenge Timor-Leste's capacity to consolidate new liberal democratic political institutions.

Punishing Bodies, Securing the Nation: How Rule of Law Can Legitimate the Urbane Authoritarian State

2011 ◽  
Vol 36 (04) ◽  
pp. 945-970 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jothie Rajah
Keyword(s):  
Corporal Punishment ◽  
Rule Of Law ◽  
Political Liberalism ◽  
Discourse Theory ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
Authoritarian Rule ◽  
The Rule Of Law ◽  
State Legitimacy ◽  
Authoritarian State ◽  
Close Analysis

Although authoritarian rule of law may seem an oxymoron, strategic reconfigurations of the “rule of law” can produce acceptance of law that observes procedure while erasing rights. By bringing into conjunction critical discourse theory and scholarship on the legal professions and political liberalism, this article shows how rulers can deploy rhetoric and legislation to produce derogations from the liberal content of rule of law while sustaining a state legitimacy built on claims to state realizations of rule of law. A close analysis of Singapore's Vandalism Act shows that silencing the critique of lawyers and constraining the power of judges has been crucial to a legitimation of the surveillance and criminalization of dissenters. The consolidation of state power effected via law and discourse might be seen as making the nation a notional panopticon—corporal punishment, even if conducted behind prison walls, becomes instructive public spectacle conveying the state's seeming omniscience and monopolistic command of law.

Changing the rule of law

IEE Review ◽  
1989 ◽  
Vol 35 (6) ◽  
pp. 218
Author(s):  
Clifford Gray
Keyword(s):  
Rule Of Law ◽  
The Rule Of Law

Changing the rule of law

IEE Review ◽  
1989 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 24
Author(s):  
H. Aspden
Keyword(s):  
Rule Of Law ◽  
The Rule Of Law

A Review of the Electoral Process under Ghana's Fourth Republic

2020 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
pp. 355-377
Author(s):  
Lydia A. Nkansah ◽  
Delali A. Gawu
Keyword(s):  
Rule Of Law ◽  
Electoral Process ◽  
The Rule Of Law ◽  
Members Of Parliament ◽  
Electoral Cycle ◽  
Fourth Republic ◽  
General Elections ◽  
Election Results

There have been seven general elections, under Ghana's Fourth Republic, to elect presidents and members of parliament. There are laws regulating the electoral process and election results have generally been accepted and, in a few cases, challenged through the laid-down process. Elections in Ghana are nonetheless reportedly flawed with irregularities tainting the outcome and creating tensions and sometimes pockets of violence. This article examines the electoral process under Ghana's Fourth Republic, namely the adoption of regulations for each electoral cycle, voters’ registration and the voters’ register, nomination of aspirants, voting, counting of votes and declaration of the results. To ensure the integrity of the electoral process, the laws regulating elections should comply with the dictates of the procedural requirements of the rule of law and the Electoral Commission's actions must be consistent with these laws.

Samuel Beckett and the Rule of Law

1993 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 71-72
Author(s):  
Phil Baker
Keyword(s):  
Rule Of Law ◽  
Samuel Beckett ◽  
The Rule Of Law
Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document