Modern Challenges to the Rule of Law

Book excerpt: The essays in this collection consider challenges to the maintenance of the rule of law in mature, modern legal systems. Leading judges and scholars from Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom - including the Hon Justice Dyson Heydon and Professor John Finnis - reflect on the nature of the rule of law and the form of order that it prescribes. The essays consider the distinction between formal and substantive conceptions of the rule of law; the relationship between rights, democracy and the rule of law; and the ideal's implications for legal change in general and the difference between legislating and case law development in particular. Some contributors address the way in which judicial action may challenge the rule of law. Others explore the ideal's implications in particular contexts. The collection's editor, Dr Richard Ekins, is a Senior Lecturer in Law at the University of Auckland.