Rule of law has meant different things to different people at different
times. This prompted constitutional historian Ivor Jennings to
characterise it as "an unruly horse". It may be difficult to define the
concept with precision but in essence it signifies commitment to certain
principles and values.
An essential principle of rule of law is that every executive action, if
it is to operate to the prejudice of any person, must have legislative
authority to support it. When John Adams used the historic phrase, "a
government of laws and not of men", what was emphasised was that law and
not whimsicality or caprice should govern the conduct and affairs of
people.
Rule of law symbolises the quest of civilised democratic societies to
combine that degree of liberty without which law is tyranny with that
degree of law without which liberty becomes licence. Thanks to the
prevalence of rule of law in our country, no official can detain a
person unless there is legislative authority
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