Ebook: Two Concepts of the Rule of Law

This study concerns the freedom of the individual, the authority of the government, and their anarchic and despotic perversions. While freedom and government have been considered opposites, the former generally is not safe without the latter. Free government implies that men be free and protected by their rulers. Liberty exists in, not without, an order. Individuals are willing to give up part of their freedom so that the government may secure the rest. Whereas men always should be wary of power and its threat to liberty, they also must recognize that legal authority is necessary for their protection from unlawful elements. As man is the measure of things, human freedom must be measured humanely by the law. In a free society, the following rule applies: the greater the regulation by the government, the greater the danger to freedom; the less regulation, the more imperative the strict enforcement of the laws.
However, even the rule of law is not without risks and problems, as the following pages will attempt to show.
Thanks are due to the Liberty Fund which encouraged the present study and stimulated it by seminars.
- Gottfried Dietze