The Rule of Law

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29178, 12 April 1960, Page 16

The Rule of Law

In January, 1959, the second congress organised by the International Commission of Jurists met in New Delhi to discuss and define the "rule of law”. The congress, attended by distinguished delegates from more than 50 countries, took as the basis f<?r its discussion a Working paper prepared since the commission’s first congress in 1955 as the result of replies to questions circulated to 75,000 lawyers and legal institutions. At its conclusion the New Delhi congress issued a single comprehensive declaration embodying its view of the rule of law. According to Lord Denning, one of the British delegates, the Delhi declaration involved a radical development in jurisprudence. “The rule of law" Lord Denning told a London audience, "must be restated so “that it is the rule of justice “ everywhere. The conception “ that it depends on the rule of “judges is out of date; it “depends in the last resort on * the determination of the

" people and should be based on “justice alone”. This year the International (Vwnmissinn of Jurists, a non-governmental consultative body accredited to the United Nations, is continuing its inquiries into the rule of law by the issue of a questionary designed to “test “the principles agreed in Delhi "in terms of what really “happens in the world”. The commission is seeking the cooperation of jurists in every country in its attempt to draw up a balance-sheet on. the rule

of law throughout the world. It believes that “ the inter- “ national legal community will “learn from the results of this " inquiry which are the

institutions, rules, and procedures indispensable for the protection of individual rights and liberties in a modern

“ society striving to establish “social, economic, and cultural “conditions under which man’s “ legitimate aspiration* and “ dignity may be realised ”,

The Delhi declaration expanded the rule of law so as to impose a positive duty upon governments to foster the wellbeing of their peoples. It created a standard of comparison for the laws and institutions of any country. Its value to newly-independent countries, struggling to establish their own indigenous rules of law, is obvious. As an instrument to awaken consciousness of repression the declaration is invaluable; that perhaps is why it lacks the approbation of the Communist countries and South Africa. To countries such as New Zealand, where basic freedoms and justice are often taken for granted, its direct importance may seem slight. Yet one of the causes of concern to the International Commission of Jurists is the increase almost everywhere of delegated legislation and encroachments upon the rights of elected legislatures. Even in a democratic country administrative rules and officials who are judges of their own actions may whittle away a popular heritage of self-government Against such encroachments the commission urges constant vigilance. Indeed, it is as a guardian of fundamental freedoms that the

commission primarily commands respect The commission, therefore, should mean much to the average layman as well as to the scholar familiar with the intricacies of legal argument. By their seemingly academic inquiries the international jurists are seeking to build fresh bastions of defence for human welfare. It is a task worthy of the best legal brains.