Description
This paper proposes an interdisciplinary account of the idea of the Rule of Law based on the concept of order. The concept of order is crucial to scholarship involving the study of both international law and international politics. Different conceptions of order animate the disciplines of both International Law and International Relations. Lawyers have devoted the bulk of their scholarly endeavors to creating order in law, turning a seemingly disparate set of judicial decisions, treaties, etc. into a coherent body of law. Another conception of order informs the study of international relations: order among states. The idea that functions as a hinge between these conceptions of order is the idea of the Rule of Law. This paper argues that at the heart of the idea of the Rule of Law is the conviction that order in law can create order through law. Understanding this idea requires studying its two main tenets: First, the law can be systematically arranged in such a manner that it allows identifying its content precisely and predictably. Second, the legal certainty that is created by having an ordered body of law acts both as an antidote to the arbitrary exercise of power and as a symbol of political unity. Understanding the relationship between order in law and order through law in this way allows to abandon the insular notion of compliance with international rules and to replace it with the notion of adherence to the rule of law.
