Developing an Index of the Rule of Law: Sharing the Experience of Hong Kong
University of Hong Kong Faculty of Law Research Paper No. 10722/57170
Asian Journal of Comparative Law, Vol. 2, No. 1, pp. 1-19, 2007
22 Pages Posted: 20 Apr 2011
Date Written: 2007
Abstract
The Rule of Law is considered a major aspect of modern governance. For every legal system, it is important whether the Rule of Law is attained and how far it has been attained. Though there are various indicators and indexes of the Rule of Law they all have their limitations. This paper reported a study conducted in Hong Kong in 2005, combining qualitative and quantitative methodologies, to assess the level of attainment of the Rule of Law in Hong Kong. It is found that the level of attainment is high but a downward trend is also discovered. A main objective of developing this new methodology in assessing Rule of Law, is that it could be used for tracking the development of the Rule of Law in a particular legal system and facilitating comparison between legal systems.
Keywords: Rule of law
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