Joseph Raz Rule of Law

The official concept of the rule of law by Raz is based on legal

positivism. As such, it focuses on the ' inseparable ' guidelines and
processes from the rule of law and does not pay attention to the
substance of the law. According to him, the rule of law is not the ' rule
of good law'. Thus, it is necessary to separate ideas such as justice,
equality and even democracy from the rule of law. If this was not the
situation, claims Raz, the rule of law would lose its role and
independence and would no longer be ' law ' but a meaningless
philosophy of society. Hence, under this approach, the rule of law is
seen as a component of the legal system and not as a general image to
be judged.
Separating the rule of law from moral conceptions depicts
that the formal approach is purely instrumental. As an example, Raz
analogized the rule of law to a knife that surely had no moral value, but
could be used effectively for both good and bad purposes. Therefore,
the provocative statement by Raz that ' gross human rights violations '
are compatible with the rule of law. Raz stated that the basic premise
of the rule of law is that law should be able to guide behavior. To make
sure this happens, laws must be prospective, open, clear and relatively
stable. An independent judiciary, natural justice, easily accessible
courts and a restriction on crime-preventing agencies from perverting
the law is other important requirements.1

1
The Western Australian Jurists ‘DENYING HUMAN RIGHTS, UPHOLDING RULE OF LAW: A CRITIQUE OF JOSEPH
RAZ’S APPROACH TO THE RULE OF LAW’ VOLUME 7