The Formal Meaning of the Ideal of the Rule of Law

Abstract

Theories that assign a formal meaning to the rule of law share the simple claim that if people must be guided by rules, it should be really possible to follow such rules. This is the factor of the stability of law, which depends on the generality of norms which the law is made up of. It is, however, doubtful that in using expressions like “the rule of law” or “principle of legality” - we can grasp a core-meaning shared by legal culture. This is especially true about Italian doctrine of public law, which often does not take into account the difference between substantive and formal conceptions of the rule of law. Examining some of main contributes of Italian scholars to this issue the paper deals with these due questions: a) to what extent we can say that the ROL is a concept and to what extent it is an ideal; b) to what extent such an ideal is possible and therefore worth pursuing.