Book contents
- The War against Law
- The War Against Law
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Preface
- Introduction
- 1 The New Constitutional Lobbyists
- 2 Parliamentary Sovereignty and the Rule of Law
- 3 A Tale of a Parallel Universe
- 4 Heresy vs Heresy: Debating the Rule of Law
- 5 Sovereignty, International Law, the Rule of Law
- 6 The Political Theology of the Parallel Universe
- Bibliography
- Index
4 - Heresy vs Heresy: Debating the Rule of Law
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 May 2026
Book contents
- The War against Law
- The War Against Law
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Preface
- Introduction
- 1 The New Constitutional Lobbyists
- 2 Parliamentary Sovereignty and the Rule of Law
- 3 A Tale of a Parallel Universe
- 4 Heresy vs Heresy: Debating the Rule of Law
- 5 Sovereignty, International Law, the Rule of Law
- 6 The Political Theology of the Parallel Universe
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
The focus of this chapter is the debate in the House of Lords and the attack there on Attorney General Richard Hermer’s adoption of Lord Bingham’s ‘thick’ definition of the rule of law in place of their allegedly apolitical ‘thin’ definition. It argues that the main attackers can’t help but espouse a thick conception of the rule of law, which, although less thick than the Hermer/Bingham conception, still shows that the Rwanda Act violated the rule of law. It also shows that the common good lawyers rely on a legal positivist position, which excludes human rights and international law from the content of the rule of law, while Hermer and Bingham, following Dicey, adopt a common law methodology that includes human rights and international law in the content of the rule of law.
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- The War against LawWhat's Wrong with Common Good Constitutionalism, pp. 123 - 150Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2026
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