“The rule of law" means literally what it says: The rule of the law. Taken in its broadest sense this means that people should obey the law and be ruled by it. The solution to this riddle is in the difference between the professional and the lay sense of law. For the lawyer anything is the law if it meets the conditions of validity laid down in the system's rules of recognition or in other rules of the system. The doctrine of the rule of law does not deny that every legal system should consist of general, open and stable rules and particular laws, an essential tool in the hands of the executive and the judiciary alike. Conformity to the rule of law is a virtue but only one of the many virtues a legal system should possess. This makes it all the more important to be clear on the values which the rule of law does serve.
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