What is the rule of law for? What does that take? Why does it matter? There is little clarity and less agreement about any of these questions. That is partly because they are hard, but it is also because we generally do not think especially well about them. Yet they are rarely more important than today, and there are better ways to think. In this seminal book, Martin Krygier combines an account of conventional assumptions, a fundamental critique of them, and an alternative way of thinking about the purpose, the value, and the significance of the rule of law, in light of the goal it should serve: tempering power. In this time of widespread intemperate abuse of power throughout the world, these concerns are not merely analytical, academic, or even legal. They are social, political, and moral, and everyone's business. And the stakes are high.

‘Martin Krygier's Tempering Power is a tonic for disappointments with our tarnished democracies. It elegantly reconfigures how we think about the rule of law, its history and future as a concept. Krygier shows how tempering power is a fertile foundation for a more decent constitutional architecture, and a civil society architecture, for the dangerous challenges of this century. It is no less than a foundation that can help to prevent wars, help prevent ecological collapse, moderate the burgeoning globalization of disease, temper the excesses and hallucinations of AIs. This is a meaning-making book for readers who care about the fate of freedom for an era of daunting challenges.'

John Braithwaite - Australian National University