Substantive Theory Of Rule Of Law

The formal and substantive theories of rule of law have been enormously influencing the UK’s Law system. Rule of Law is ‘a treaty or doctrine that describes the extent to which certain features as present within a country.’ Formal theory is that the concept will not be finding the details of law by using the previous judgements. It mainly focuses on how it is presented and the way on how to apply in daily life. The procedure is the major thing that formal theories is considering about. And the formal theories basically do not take the law’s content as consideration. Whereas substantive theory is to show to the general public how the law will be exercised, it is more concerning about the details inside the law and it is the procedures of the

Starting with the formal one, Joseph Raz’s Rule of Law had mainly focus on the content on the rule of Law, the Law itself should be clear and constant, the procedures must be exposed and thus easily known to the public. It is because Law literally is complex for people to understand in short period of time, what are basically the procedures and the Law system itself. For the substantive theory of Rule of Law, the law itself the law should be easily accessible. When issues arise, it should be resolved by applying the law, discretion should not be exercised. The public authorities should exercise their authorised power w8ithin good faith, should not acting over the boundaries. In addition, the law should also have included Human Rights to the convicted when facing a trial, the trial itself should be fair enough. The state should also have its own obligation to obey the international

The statement cannot fully uphold the Rule of Law as the principles of Rule of Law cannot be fulfilled because the courts cannot make an impartial judgement, the government can act whenever they like, that will make people afraid of the government and the courts cannot give confidence to the people to make impartial judgement. If this happens, it cannot say a state is running properly as rule of law cannot be uphold in a right and positive way, and neither formal nor substantive theory cannot be upheld