Law As a Crisis for the Rule of Law: A Speculative Essay
17 Pages Posted: 5 Sep 2017 Last revised: 8 Dec 2017
Date Written: August 30, 2017
Abstract
This brief essay, for a collection edited by Carolina Deik, “Crisis of the Rule of Law,” to be published in Colombia, describes some ways in which too much law can be as problematic as too little law. After noting that law’s complexity can introduce some of the arbitrariness that the rule of law seeks to overcome, the essay uses the example of anti-corruption law to suggest how enforcing the law at the retail level might weaken the overall system of the rule of law by eroding public confidence in public institutions, and, sometimes, by weakening those institutions themselves.
Keywords: rule of law, corruption
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation