Philip Allott, a former Legal Counselor in the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office and a prominent scholar, recently suggested that the United States is a “law-state,” that is, the “transformation of the American colonies into a new kind of society at the end of the eighteenth century was achieved through law.” This “new kind of society,” moreover, has been grounded on the concept of the rule of law. In the words of former US Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black, the United States is “dedicated” to the rule of law.

Recently, this “dedication” to the rule of law has taken the form of efforts, by the US government and others, to promote the rule of law in foreign countries, especially in the third world and the former Soviet bloc countries. Reflecting this new emphasis, in 1999 Secretary of State Madeleine Albright created the position of Senior Coordinator for the Rule of Law in the State Department.

At the same time the precise meaning of the term “rule of law” has been a topic of sharp debate, and it has been suggested that its meaning “may be less clear today than ever before.” Also, although the rule of law as an ideal has enjoyed near universal support, some have criticized the very concept. For example, Morton J. Horwitz, a leader in the critical legal studies movement, has contended that the rule of law “[b]y promoting procedural justice … enables the shrewd, the calculating, and the wealthy to manipulate its forms to their own advantage.