Topic 4: Lord Tom Bingham’s Definition of the Rule of Law
The Rt. Hon Lord Bingham of Cornhill KG was the pre-eminent UK judge of his generation, who crowned his judicial career by leaving us arguably the best account of what the Rule of Law means in practice and why it is so important in any civilised society – too important to remain the exclusive preserve of courts and lawyers.
Lord Bingham’s eight principles of the Rule of Law:
- The law must be accessible and as far as possible intelligible, clear and predictable.
- Questions of legal rights and liability should ordinarily be resolved by application of the law and not the exercise of discretion.
- The laws of the land should apply equally to all, save to the extent that objective differences justify differentiation.
- Ministers and public officers at all levels must exercise the powers conferred on them in good faith, fairly, for the purpose for which the powers were conferred, without exceeding the limits of such powers and not unreasonably.
- The law must afford adequate protection of fundamental human rights.
- Means must be provided for resolving, without prohibitive cost or inordinate delay, bona fide civil disputes which the parties themselves are unable to resolve.
- The adjudicative procedures provided by the state should be fair.
- The rule of law requires compliance by the state with its obligations in international law as in national law.
(Tom Bingham, The Rule of Law, 2010)