Declaration of Delhi - History

History

In Anglo-American tradition, the most influential version of the rule of law has been that popularized by British jurist A.V. Dicey in 1885. Dicey's doctrine on the rule of law is a threefold one:

• (i) The absolute supremacy or predominance of 'regular' law as opposed to the influence of arbitrary power and the absence of discretionary authority on the part of the government. No man is punishable or can be lawfully made to suffer in body or goods except for a distinct breach of law established in the ordinary legal manner before the ordinary courts.
• (ii) Equality before the law. All persons whether high official or ordinary citizen are subject to the same law administered by the ordinary courts.
• (iii) The constitution in the result of the ordinary law of the land developed by the judges on a case by case basis. It is thus woven into the very fabric of law and not superimposed from above. This is essentially a defense to the United Kingdom's unwritten constitution.

Modern lawyers would regard the rule of law as essentially a political or moral idea, although nonetheless important for that, since it affects the way the law is developed and applied. It concerns ideas of regularity, access to the courts, fair procedure and honoring expectations. The 'rule of law' in Dicey's sense was a political factor that led to the enactment of the Crown Proceedings Act 1947 in the United Kingdom. Before that Act the Crown, that is, the central government, was immune from liability in the courts for breach of contract or for injuries inflicted by its servants.

Since the Second World War there have been several attempts to draw up Internationally binding codes of basic human rights. The Nurenberg Trials of Nazi war criminals that were organized by the victorious allies were based upon the assumption that some of the laws of Nazi Germany were not valid as they were repugnant to the standards of morality accepted by all civilized nations. This approach to law raises profound philosophical problems, but the role of modern human rights treaties and declarations is a less dramatic one. These include the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948), and the Declaration of Delhi or New Delhi Congress (1959).