Laws or rules in a free society should have similar
characteristics; there should be "rule of law." Rule of law means
that laws are certain and known in advance. Laws envision no particular outcome
except that of allowing people to peaceably pursue their own objectives.
Finally, and most importantly, laws are equally applied to everyone, including
government officials.
Let's look at our country and ask whether we live under
rule of law. Just about every law that Congress enacts violates the
requirements for rule of law. How do we determine violations of rule of law?
It's easy. See whether the law applies to particular Americans, as opposed to
all Americans. See whether the law exempts public officials from its
application. See whether the law is known in advance. See whether the law takes
action against a person who has taken no aggressive action against another. If
one conducts such a test, he will conclude that it is virtually impossible to
find a single act of Congress that adheres to the principles of the rule of
law. The supreme tragedy is Americans do not want rule of law. Or would they, if
enlightened and afforded the opportunity?
No comments:
Post a Comment