The Rule of Law and Ethics: How Personal Restraint Promotes Freedom and Prevents Tyranny

Markkula Center for Applied Ethics

The concept of the rule of law developed in the early modern period in the West as a response to kings invoking divine right to set themselves above the obligations of civil law. According to the rule of law, everyone – including the king – is subject to the law. Brian Buckley, senior lecturer, SCU Department of Philosophy, unpacks the history and meaning of the idea with special attention to its particular ethical character and with an eye toward its applicability in the present day.