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Full Idea
Communist leaders justify themselves as the embodiment of the people's will as workers, and fascist leaders as expressing the will of the nation. Both believe their policies contain a superior justice on this basis.
Gist of Idea
Justice superior to the rule of law is claimed on behalf of the workers, or the will of the nation
Source
John Charvet (Liberalism: the basics [2019], 02)
Book Ref
Charvet,John: 'Liberalism: the basics' [Routledge 2019], p.11
A Reaction
[compressed] A neat summary of why the rule of law might be rejected (other than by simple tyrrany justified only by force). In modern democracies recent right-wing governments have pushed back the law and attacked justice on this basis.
| 22824 | Magna Carta forbids prison without trial, and insists on neutral and correct process [-, by Charvet] |
| 422 | The people should fight for the law as if for their city-wall [Heraclitus] |
| 7810 | The 'Eumenides' of Aeschylus shows blood feuds replaced by law [Aeschylus, by Grayling] |
| 22551 | Correct law should be in control, with rulers only deciding uncertain issues [Aristotle] |
| 22554 | It is said that we should not stick strictly to written law, as it is too vague [Aristotle] |
| 2827 | It is preferable that law should rule rather than any single citizen [Aristotle] |
| 19891 | Rule of law is superior to autonomy, because citizens can see what is expected [Hooker,R] |
| 22823 | The rule of law is mainly to restrict governments [Charvet] |
| 22825 | The 1689 Bill of Rights denied the monarch new courts, or the right to sit as judge [Charvet] |
| 22826 | From 1701 only parliament could remove judges, whose decisions could not be discussed [Charvet] |
| 22827 | Justice superior to the rule of law is claimed on behalf of the workers, or the will of the nation [Charvet] |
| 22828 | The rule of law mainly benefits those with property and liberties [Charvet] |