The Rule of Law as the Democratic Rule of Persons

Abstract This chapter defends a formal and minimal account of the rule of law, of the kind associated with Hart, Raz, and Waldron. However, it argues that the rule of law confronts the ‘Hobbes challenge’, whereby the rule of law always depends on the rule of persons. Answering this challenge, the chapter argues that the democratic rule of persons proves both intrinsically and instrumentally essential to laws and the legal system possessing the formal, substantive, and procedural qualities associated with this view of the rule of law. It then deploys this analysis to defend Dicey’s claim that parliamentary sovereignty embodies such a democratic account of the rule of law.