Chris Hattingh | Deputy Head of Campaigns | South African Institute of Race Relations | mail me |
For millennia the dominant thinking throughout human society was, ‘force over voluntary interactions.’ Regardless of the country, the adage of ‘might makes right’ was the guiding rule upon which people interacted with each other.
With the adoption of the Magna Carta in England in 1215, and later on the change in thinking that characterised the American War for Independence, the reforms of various religions (especially Christianity in the Western context), and the Enlightenment, rose the importance of, ‘voluntaryism over force,’ and equality before the law.
The rule of law, properly understood, refers to a view and rationale of the why behind laws themselves – the spirit or tone in which law is devised and implemented.
If one understands that the proper reasoning underpinning laws must be to establish clear and equal rights amongst all citizens, it follows that laws that are arbitrary or conceived on the wrong basis will result in negative effects. This further serves to eliminate, as much as possible, the use of force or fraud by citizens against each other – and also crucially, the use of arbitrary state power by…
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Read the full article by Chris Hattingh, Deputy Head of Campaigns, South African Institute of Race Relations, as well as a host of other topical management articles written by professionals, consultants and academics in the February/March 2022 edition of BusinessBrief.
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