What is the rule of law? Critically assess the extent to which the United Kingdom upholds the rule of law.

             Parliamentary sovereignty is a threat to the rule of law, and should be limited in order to achieve the rule of law, for example, when Parliament passes an act enabling detention without trial, this is against the rule of law. Law should be superior over political power, otherwise a dictatorship could come into existence and justify atrocities just because it has the power to do so. Ultimately it is the rule of law which stops a democracy descending into an elected dictatorship. To perform its task, the judiciary has to be, and seen to be, independent of government. Unless the public accepts that the judiciary are independent, they will have no confidence in the honesty and fairness of the decisions of the courts. One of the main principles of the rule of law is that everyone is equal under the law and because of that, everyone has the right to a fair trial. So the judiciary can not be seen to be influence or affected by any other body of the government in order to uphold the rule of law. For example, the Nuremburg trials were not fair, as they were not independent of any other body. They had to follow point of the London Charter, that went against what would be seen as a fair trial by today’s standards.

Universal laws, such as the rule of law, would ensure that corrupt governments could not enforce their ideas within law, for example when the Nazi’s were in government, and made laws that went against the philosophical good. If they had followed the rule of law, they would not have had the power abuse that took place. F. A. Hayek states that rule of law "means that a government in all its actions is bound by rules fixed and announced beforehand -- rules which make it possible to foresee with fair certainty how the authority will use its coercive powers in given circumstances, and to plan one's individual affairs on the basis of this knowledge". In criminal law, there is a prohibition on "ex post facto" laws, that is, no one should be punished for a crime not previously defined in law. The rationale for this principle is that, first, the government should not be allowed to abuse its power by punishing individuals for political or other conveniences; second, it would be grossly unjust and oppressive for the government to punish someone for behaviour that was not known to be criminal at the time of commission; third, to so punish individuals would result in so many uncertainties that it would create great inefficiencies. The Nuremburg trials have gone completely against this principle but they claimed that a defence which stated that the defendant was following the laws at the time was not sufficient as it went against natural law, moral judgement and most importantly the rule of law.

However, the legal basis for the Nuremburg trials, were established by the London Charter; an organisation that existed only from 1945-1949, which set up the trial procedure and defined the crimes for which the defendants were to be tried. The fact that the court had arguably no jurisdiction and no neutral judge/prosecutor, and were trying the defendants on foreign land using hearsay evidence without right of appeal did not seem to make anybody question where the rule of law was in this trial. This puts the legality of the Nuremburg trials into question, however men were still sentenced to the death penalty, even when the London Charter was, ironically, ignoring the rule of law which depends on the role of trial by jury and the impartiality of judges. At this point in history it is clear that the UK did not uphold the rule of law, although this can be understood, as there was a great outcry to see people punished for the events that happened, it seems almost fair that a government run without the rule of law, should be tried without the rule of law applied to the court involved.

Historically, it is shown that the rule of law was not upheld by the UK but in 1998 the UK signed the ECHR and in effect ensured that the rule of law was a basic doctrine in all of Europe. The Human Rights Act reflects the rule of law in nearly all of its articles, and as the UK has signed it, it indicates that it supports this idea, however it does delegate away from it when it deems appropriate as shown in A v Secretary of State [2005]. The Human Rights Act increased the scope for courts to intervene, and thus making the government, including Parliament conform to the rule of law. Therefore to this extent the UK is upholding the rule of law. Sovereignty comes from constitutional arrangements, given to Parliament by law, so as long as they follow the rule of law as a basic principle there is no reason for them to put their authority into action. Parliament is not completely liberated to do as it wished. Europe puts limits on Parliaments power as indicated by the derogation order, where they had to state reasons for their actions. Although they still got the same objective, they went about it in a legal way, and are thus compatible with the rule of law, that no individual, however powerful, is above the law.

The Royal Prerogative powers that government possess fall into the same category as Parliamentary sovereignty, in that they are powers that enable government to act without the need of other authority, apart from royal ascent in same cases. The government can exercise prerogative powers to deploy and use Armed Forces overseas, dissolve Parliament, make and ratify treaties and a number of other major deeds. In actuality, this is against the rule of law as they can do all of these actions and not be held accountable in that they will not be required to go to a court of law to justify their actions should they have gone terribly wrong. The powers cannot be exercised without restraint. The 1689 Bill of Rights formally curtailed the powers of the Crown by legislating to remove or outlaw a number of ancient rights of the Crown and subsequent statutes and conventions have limited them further. Even so, the fact that government these powers indicates how the rule of law hasn’t quite reached all aspects of the United Kingdom.

The way in which the UK does uphold the rule of law is how we follow Dicey’s example of the rule of law that “No man is punishable or can be lawfully made to suffer in body or goods except for a distinct breach of the law established in the ordinary legal manner before the ordinary courts of the land … [And] that every official from the Prime minister down to a constable or collector of taxes, is under the same responsibility for every act done without legal justification as any other citizen” Although Parliamentary sovereignty seemingly goes against this, it does have to justify its actions and therefore is in accordance with the rule of law.

The rights protected by the ECHR and enshrined in the Human Rights Act 1998 are followed by the UK, such as the prohibition of slavery and right to education, however rights, such as the right to marry, and the prohibition of torture, some seemingly easy acts to follow, cause much controversy within the UK. The right to marry has caused huge debates over homosexual’s right to marry, and the prohibition of torture, although illegal and non-existent in the UK, has been proved that the UK use places overseas to extract information out of potential extremists. In this sense the UK is not upholding the rule of law, however the fact that it is upheld within the UK (regardless of policies that the UK enact abroad) would suggest that it does strictly uphold the rule of law, as it does give people the right to a fair trial, and no punishment without law.  

The right to a fair trial can be questioned. All judges are bias, it’s natural and a part of a person’s upbringing, therefore can a judge really be impartial and therefore can we actually have a fair trial. The Nuremburg trials were an obvious indication of a bias courtroom that was supplied with allied representatives, who took the place of judge, prosecutor and defence. However in present day, this would not happen, and as stated earlier, although they would be a bias jury and judge, this would not necessarily impact on a defendants outcome, as the jury have to decide there outcome purely on the evidence provided. Although hearsay evidence was allowed in the Nuremburg trials, this would not be acceptable today, especially after the Criminal Justice Act 2003, and therefore coincides with the rule of law that everyone has the right to a fair trial.

           At the heart of British citizenship is the idea that society is based on laws that contain basic principles that ensure the rights of the individual and that these rights are balanced proportionately with the collective good. The Human Rights Act provides a preliminary set of shared values to which all countries and communities can subscribe to. The rights and freedoms set out in the act are not tied to any particular belief system but share the basic principles common to most of the democratic world. They allow basic rights such as the freedom of expression, however simple rights such as these still lead to abusive manipulation of the rights. For example, giving freedom of speech and freedom of the printed word has led to the media to exploit this and in some cases has been viewed as assisting terrorism by spreading propaganda. Yet freedom of expression is just an extension of the rule of law, and therefore if the rule of law is able to be used as a component to aid corrupt and immoral actions, then to some it would seem as if the rule of law should not be present in the UK’s system.

        Another factor that aids to the argument that Britain does not uphold the role of law to the extent that it could is that it does not have a separation of powers, which would be an affective constitutional device for achieving the rule of law. The separation of powers involves the state being separated into three distinct branches; the executive, the legislative and the judicial. All branches are elected separately and thus makes it fair and balance however in Britain there tends to be more of a ‘fusion of power’ in that the individual roles of the branches merge together, this could be because flexibility is needed for a modern society or it could be that Britain has an unwritten constitution. However if the UK were to accept a separation of powers, supporters of this idea believe that it will protect democracy and prevent tyranny. Opponents of this theory, such as Professor Charles M. Hardin who has pointed out that, regardless of whether it accomplishes this end, it also slows down the process of governing, promotes executive dictatorship and unaccountability, and tends to marginalize the legislature. However the separation of powers without assistance from other systems does not ascertain the rule of law, but the rule of the law can not be fully operational without a separation of powers. To ratify this, one would need a parliamentary system that ensures parliamentary sovereignty, much like what the UK has, and as stated earlier, although it does upturn the balance of power it also ensures that Parliament can overlook legislation and retain its ability to remove the executive. All branches of government will still be subject to law, and as a sovereign body, Parliament can change these laws, however, it can not violate the law or ignore parliamentary procedure, and it is this that keep the rule of law active. The fact that the UK has this political system shows that it does in some sense uphold the role of law, but due to the sovereignty of Parliament, the rule of law could easily be ignored, and ‘emergencies’ that arise in Britain could well be the basis for the rule of law being mistreated. On the other hand, I believe that it is necessary for Parliament to have this power, as I feel that in this present time, they would be unable to abuse their power, due to Britain’s citizens, and more importantly the European Union.

        In conclusion, it can be said that the United Kingdom does uphold the rule of law, as everyone is subject to law, everyone is treated equally under the law and law regulates the government. To what extent does the UK uphold the rule of law is another matter entirely. The governments’ prerogative powers, parliamentary sovereignty, the ability to derogate away from the Human Rights Act, and the lack of a separation of powers all result in the UK barely meeting the minimum standards for the rule of law. However, the fact that we have the Human Rights Act, that we have put trust into Parliament to make the correct decisions and to not abuse its power, and proposed bills such as the Governance of Britain which aims to reduce prerogative powers and make the government more accountable all indicate that the rule of law is an imperative factor, and shows that the United Kingdom appears to want to integrate the rule of law further into its constitution.  

Bibliography

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