Rule of Law
Subtitle: The Jurisprudence of Liberty in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries
Publisher: Northern Illinois University Press
Published: July 2004
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 150
ISBN-13: 9780875803272
Subjects: Foundations of law; c 1600 to c 1700; c 1700 to c 1800; Jurisprudence; General; Legal Reference / Law Profession; United States; Law; Rule of law; England; 17th century; 18th century; Great Britain; History
Description: ""Rule of law" - the idea that the law is the nation's sovereign authority - has served as a cornerstone for constitutional theory and the jurisprudence of liberty. When law reigns over governors and the governed alike, a citizen need not fear capricious monarchs, arbitrary judges, or calculating bureaucrats. When a citizen obeys the law, life, liberty, and property are safe; when a citizen disobeys, the law alone will determine the appropriate punishment." "While the rule of law's English roots can be found in the Middle Ages, its governing doctrine rose to power during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. John Phillip Reid traces the concept's progress through a series of landmark events in Great Britain and North America: the trial of Charles I, the creation of the Mayflower Compact, the demand for a codification of the laws in John Winthrop's Massachusetts Bay Colony, and an attempt to harness the Puritan Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell to the rule of law by crowning him king. The American Revolution, the culmination of two centuries of political foment, marked the greater victory of rule of law." "Even as Reid tells this story, he argues that we must not take for granted what the expression "rule of law" meant. Rather, if we are to understand its nuances, we must closely examine the historical context as well as the intentions of those who invoked it as a doctrine."--BOOK JACKET.