Democracy, Rights, and Justice

Abstract

Abstract This chapter focuses on the relationship between the rule of law and two other fundamental concerns of political morality: democracy and respect for fundamental human rights. These three are distinct values, issuing distinct normative demands; nevertheless they are complementary and intertwined. Fundamental human rights can adequately serve vital interests of human beings only with the assistance of law; and the law and its administration, conforming to the demands of the rule of law, serve their grounding values only when the law adequately recognizes and protects these fundamental rights. Strictly speaking, a legal system can meet rule-of-law principles and standards and yet fail to protect against systematic violations of basic human rights. However, the government’s commitment to the values served by the rule of law would be fundamentally compromised, if this were so. Similarly, democracy and the rule of law exist in a unique relationship of interdependence. The rule of law supplies the necessary infrastructure of democracy, while democracy is the natural completion of the ambitions that motivate the rule of law.