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The Messianic Thought of the Rule of Law

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Abstract

The first segment starts with a definition of two dimensions of the concept of rule of law; related to the notion of sovereignty and as a concept to control arbitrariness on the part of the ruler. The segment proceeds to give a historical account of the notion and the different stages of its epistemological configuration, from the ancient Greek notion of Eunomia and its incompatibility with the popular rule to the current notion, where the rule of law has become fused with democracy and human rights. The first segment also focuses on the relation between the concept of the rule of law and other principles, such as proportionality, neutrality, and effectiveness. The second segment of the paper analyses the phenomenon of juridification of the rule of law in international treaties and domestic constitutions. It pays particular attention to the role that constitutional accommodation plays in the process of rationalization of the rule of law as a prerequisite to its idealization and mystification. It analyses the reason why this principle is an essential feature of the constitutionalism despite the inner plurality of legal systems. The next aspect, analysed in the third segment of this paper, is the messianic use of the concept of the rule of law. The paper performs a critical definition of messianic, covering a theological perspective and the different theories and concepts that go hand in hand with the idea of the Messiah, such as the “coming”, prophetical and apocalyptical messianism, the phenomena of eschatology, expiation and redemption pictured in Judaism. The segment also covers the secular transplantation of the messianic thought. The last segment is a conclusion returning to the themes identified in the paper and summarises how the messianic thought is applied in the realm of the rule of law.

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Notes

  1. Raz, Joseph “The Rule of Law and its Virtue”, The Law Quarterly Review, 1977, p. 211.

  2. Raz Joseph, The authority of Law: Essays on law and morality, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 2012.

  3. Waldron, Jeremy, “The Rule of Law”, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall 2016 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL = <https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2016/entries/rule-of-law/>.

  4. Ibid.

  5. Abat i Ninet, Antoni, Constitutional Violence, Legitimacy, Democracy and Human Rights, Edinburgh University Press, 2010.

  6. Morrow, G. R., Plato’s Cretan City, Princeton University Press, 1993, p.521.

  7. Aristotle, Politics: A Treatise on Government, Create Space, 2010, p. 71.

  8. Aquinas, St Thomas, Summa Theologica and Doctoris Angelici, Christian Classics, 1981.

  9. Walker, Geoffroy d. Q, The Rule of Law, Foundation of Constitutional Democracy, Melbourne University Press, 1988.

  10. Article 16 of the Paris´ Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen of 1789.

  11. Solum, Lawrence B, Equality and the rule of law, in Ian Shapiro, Nomos XXXVI, NYU Press, 1995, p. 107.

  12. Walker, op. cit, p.13 and Ostwald, Martin, From Popular Sovereignty to the Sovereignty of Law, Law, Society, and Politics in Fifth-Century Athens, University of California Press, 1986, p. 5–15.

  13. Kagan, Donald, Pericles of Athens and the Birth of Democracy, The Free Press, 1991, p. 47.

  14. Kelly, John, A Short History of Western Legal Theory, Clarendon Press, 1992, p. 19.

  15. Costa, Pietro, “the Rule of Law: A Historical Introduction” in Pietro Costa and Zolo, Danilo, The Rule of Law, Springer, 2007, p. 77.

  16. Bingham, Tom, The Rule of Law, Penguins Books, 2011, p. 12.

  17. Ibid p. 17.

  18. Barak, Aharon, Proportionality, constitutional rights and their limitations, Cambridge University Press, 2012.

  19. Ibid at p. 230.

  20. Alexy, Robert, A, Theory of Constitutional Rights, Oxford University Press, 2002.

  21. Barak, Aharon, op. cit, p. 3.

  22. Cohen-Eliya, Moshe and Porat, Iddo, Proportionality and constitutional culture, Cambridge University Press, 2013, p.24

  23. Ibid at p.26.

  24. Barak, Aharon, op.cit, p.230.

  25. Grant Huscroft, Bradley W. Miller, and Gregoire Webber, “introduction” in Huscroft, G and Miller, W, Bradley (eds), Proportionality and the Rule of law, Rights, Justification, Reasoning, Cambridge University Press, 2014, p. 2.

  26. Klatt, Matthias and Meister, Moritz, Constitutional structure of proportionality, Oxford University Press,2012.

  27. Huscroft, G and Miller, W, Bradley (eds), Proportionality and the Rule of law, Rights, Justification, Reasoning, Cambridge University Press, 2014.

  28. Bauslaugh, Robert A, The Concept of Neutrality in Classical Greece, University of California Press, 1991, p.xi.

  29. Van’t Wout, P.E, “Solon’s Law on Stasis: promoting active Neutrality”, The Classical Quarterly,2010, Vol.60, n.2, pp.289–301, p.290.

  30. Waldron, Jeremy, “Legislation and the Rule of Law”, Legisprudence, 2007, 1: 91–124

  31. Schmitt, Carl, Der Begriff des Politischen, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin, 1963, p.100.

  32. Ibid.

  33. Dyzenhaus, David, Legality and Legitimacy: Carl Schmitt, Hans Kelsen and Hermann Heller in Weimar, Clarendon Press, 1997.

  34. Raz, Joseph, op. cit, p. 226.

  35. Sunstein, Cass R, “Neutrality in Constitutional Law”, Columbia Law Review, 1992, Vol.92, n.1, pp. 1–52, p.1

  36. Ibid at p.5.

  37. Ibid at p. 50.

  38. Ibid at 50–52.

  39. See. Smith v. Allbright, 321 U.S. 649 (1944)

  40. Celano, Bruno, “Normative Legal Positivism, Neutrality and the Rule of Law” in Ferrer Beltan, Jordi; Moreso, José Juan and Papayannis, Diego M (eds.), Neutrality and Theory of Law, Springer Verlag, Law and Philosophy, Vol. 106, 2013, p.182.

  41. Maria Elvira Pinedo and Antoni Abat i Ninet, “Effectiveness” entry at the Max Planck Institute Encyclopedia.

  42. Ibid.

  43. Consolidated version of the Treaty on European Union Official Journal C 326, 26.10.2012, p. 13–390.

  44. Pinedo and Abat i Ninet, ibid.

  45. Mutua, Makau “Hope and Dispair for a New South-Africa: The Limits of Rights Discourse”, Harvard Human Rights Journal, Vol. 10 (1997), 63, p.70.

  46. Ibid

  47. Mutunga, Willy, “Human Rights States and Societies: A reflection from Kenya”, paper presented at the International Seminar on Constitutional Order and Justice in Conflict-Affected-Settings, October 4th, 2016, University of Copenhagen.

  48. Raz, J, op.cit. p. 211.

  49. Deflem, Mathieu, “Habermas, Modernity and Law”, SAGE Publications, 1996, pp.151–166.

  50. Habermas, Jürgen, Theorie des Kommunikativen Handelns. Band II, Zur Kritik der funktionalischen Vernunft, Suhrkamp,1959, p. 524–526.

  51. Idid.

  52. http://ec.europa.eu/enlargement/policy/policy-highlights/rule-of-law/index_en.htm

  53. http://ec.europa.eu/justice/effective-justice/rule-of-law/index_en.htm

  54. Ibid

  55. Bánkuti M., Halmai G.and Scheppele K. L., ‘From Separation of Powers to a Government without Checks: Hungary’s Old and New Constitution’, in Toth, G. A. (ed.), Constitution for a Disunited Nation: On Hungary’s 2011 Fundamental Law, CEU Press, 2012, p.268.

  56. Universal Declaration of Human Rights, G.A. Res. 217A (III), U.N. GAOR, at 71, U.N. Doc A/810 (1948), available at http://hrlibrary.umn.edu/instree/b1udhr.htm (last visited 5 October 2016).

  57. Peerenboom, Randall, “Human Rights and the Rule of Law, What’s the relationship?”, Public law and Legal Theory Research Paper Series, UCLA school of law, Research paper num. 2013, 05–31

  58. Resolution 2000/47 promoting and consolidating democracy” Commission of Human Rights.

  59. Resolution 28/14 of 9 April 2015

  60. Report of the Secretary-General, “Strengthening and coordinating United Nations rule of law activities”, 11 July 2014.

  61. Report of the secretary-general on the rule of law and transitional justice in conflict and Post-conflict societies, un document (s/2004/616).

  62. Ibid.

  63. See: https://tcdata360.worldbank.org/indicators/h087264f0

  64. See: The World Bank brief, “Justice and Rule of Law”, April 2018, available at http://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/governance/brief/justice-rights-and-public-safety

  65. http://info.worldbank.org/governance/wgi/#home

  66. See: http://info.worldbank.org/governance/wgi/#home

  67. Peerenboom, Randall, op. cit, p.4.

  68. Ibid.

  69. See China’s Long March, supra note 10; Rose, Carol V, The “New” Law and Development Movement in the Post-Cold War Era: A Vietnam Case Study, 32 L. & SOC’Y REV. 93 (1998), as appear in Peerenboom, op.cit, p.5.

  70. Zetterholm, Magnus “introduction” in Magnus Zetterhom (ed), The Messiah, in Early Judaism and Christianity, Fortress Press, 2007, p. xxv.

  71. Collins, John J in Zetterholm, op.cit, p. 1

  72. See: Klausner Joseph, The Messianic Idea in Israel from its Beginning to the Completion of the Mishnah, Mcmillan, 1955; Gressmann Hugo, Der Messias, Vandenhoeck Und Ruprecht,1929; Staerk Willi, Die Erlösererwartung in den östlichen Religionen, T&T Clark Ltd,1938; Mowinckel Sigmund, He that Cometh: the Messianic Concept in the Old Testament and Later Judaism, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing,2005; Horbury, William, Messianism among Jews and Christians: Twelve Biblical and Historical Studies, T&T Clark Ltd, 2003 and Bloch, Ernst, Das Prinzip Hoffnung, Suhrkamp Verlag, 1959

  73. Briggs, Charles Augustus, Messianic Prophecy, T & T Clark,1886, p. 67.

  74. Ibid

  75. Ibid p. 71.

  76. Scholem Gershom, Sabbatai Sevi, The Mystical Messiah 1626–1676, Princeton University Press,1973, p. 8

  77. Ibid at p. 7.

  78. Ibíd at p. 6.

  79. Ibíd.

  80. Ibid at 8.

  81. Ibid at 5.

  82. Scholem, op.cit, at p.12.

  83. Strauss, Leo, introduction to the Moses Maimonides, Guide of the Perplexed, The University of Chicago Press, Vol.I, 1963, xiv.

  84. Taubes, Jacob, Ad Carl Schmitt. Gegenstrebige Fügung, Merve Verlag, 1987, p. 39.

  85. Ibid at xv.

  86. Kraemer, Joel L, “Moises Maimonides: the intellectual Portrait” in Seeskin Kenneth, The Cambridge Companion to Maimonides, Cambridge University Press, 2005, p.34.

  87. Kreseil Haim, “Maimonides´ political philosophy” in Seeskin Kenneth, The Cambridge Companion to Maimonides, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2005. p.218.

  88. Scholem. op.cit, at p.25.

  89. Bouretz, Pierre, “Messianism and Modern Jewish Philosophy”, The Cambridge Companion to Modern Jewish Philosophy,2007, (170–191), p. 174.

  90. Ben Maimon, Moses, The Code of Maimonides, Yale University Press, New Haven 1949.

  91. Ibid at 131.

  92. Ibid.

  93. Goetschel, Roland, Meir Ibn Gabbay, Le Discours de la Kabbale Espagnole, Peeters, Leuven. 1981, p.452.

  94. Neuser Jacob, Introduction to Rabbinic Literature, Yale University Press, 1999.

  95. Goetschel, op.cit, at p.458.

  96. Ibid.

  97. Ibid.

  98. Ohana, David, “J.L. Talmon, Gershom Scholem and the Price of Messianism”, History of European Ideas, V. 34:2, 2008, pp. 169–188.

  99. Sperber, Elliot, “The Messianic in the Law: Rule, Exception, Health and the Emancipatory Potential of the Legal Maxim Salus Populi Suprema Lex Esto” University of Bologna Law Review, v. 1:2, 2016, pp. 186–218, p. 187.

  100. Derrida, Jacques, Spectres de Marx. L’État de la dette, le travail du deuil et la nouvelle internationale, Editions Galilée, 1993 and Benjamin, Walter, Über den Begriff der Geschichte, Werke und Nachlass – Kritische Gesamtausgabe, Bd. 19. Suhrkamp, 2010.

  101. Khatib, Sami, “Derrida & Sons: Marx, Benjamin, and the Specter of the Messianic”, Anthropological Materialism,2013a.

  102. Katib Sami, “The Messianic without Messianism, Walter’s Benjamin Materialist Theology”, Anthropology and Materialism, vol.1/2013b, p. 2.

  103. Derrida, J. 1999. Marx & Sons. (tr.) Kelly Barry. In Ghostly Demarcations: A Symposium on Jacques Derrida’s Specters of Marx. (ed.) Michael Sprinker. London and New York: Verso.

  104. Weiler, JHH “In the Face of Crisis: Input Legitimacy, Output Legitimacy and the Political Messianism of European Integration”, European Integration, Vol. 34 (7), p. 832, 2012.

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  1. Faculty of Law, University of Copenhagen, Karen Blixens Plads 16, 2300 København S, Søndre Campus, Building: 6A-4-32, Copenhagen, Denmark

    Antoni Abat i Ninet

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Ninet, A.A.i. The Messianic Thought of the Rule of Law. Philosophia 47, 733–755 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11406-018-9994-5

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