The rule of legislation, a precept attacked by the extremes | EUROtoday

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History of an idea. There is a paradox within the idea of the rule of legislation. This precept, which is the idea of liberal democracies, is nevertheless more and more below assault, specifically from a part of the fitting and the intense proper. Thus, the brand new Minister of the Interior, Bruno Retailleau, from probably the most conservative wing of the Republicans, affirmed, firstly of the autumn, that the rule of legislation was not “neither sacred nor intangible”. Faced with the outcry, he needed to rethink his remarks and the Prime Minister, Michel Barnier, was pressured, in his normal coverage declaration, to reaffirm his attachment “respect for the rule of law”. Such assaults have already taken place prior to now, amongst others on the time of the 2015 assaults, but in addition throughout the censorship of sure provisions of the immigration legislation in January 2024.

Critics of the rule of legislation see it as an impediment to the expression of well-liked sovereignty. Two legitimacies would subsequently conflict: that ensuing from the vote of politicians and that ensuing from legislation and jurisprudence. Lawyer Arié Alimi, vice-president of the Human Rights League, summarizes the second which, in keeping with him, goes past the authorized debate alone: “We want to eliminate the rule of law, because it is contrary to an old political tradition where the State prevails over individuals. This is a fundamental, essential debate. »

A few decades ago, however, it seemed inconceivable to call this principle into question. “Democracy [est] inseparable from the rule of law and the Europe of democracies [peut] be built only in and through respect for the lawrecalled François Mitterrand, then President of the Republic, in 1993. A State subject to the law and which knows how to ensure that it is respected by all, this is the State of law so much advocated, and rightly so when we remember what happened to nations where a dictatorial power established the totalitarian state. »

A fairly technical legal concept, the rule of law is the fruit of the reflection of the greatest philosophers and legal theorists, such as John Locke (1632-1704), Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778), Charles de Montesquieu (1689- 1755) or, more recently, Hans Kelsen (1881-1973). Its definition varies and its influences are multiple: the German doctrine of “Rechtsstaat”there “rule of law” British and French conception, inheritor to the Enlightenment and the French Revolution.

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