"The King himself ought not to be subject to man, but subject to God and the law, because the law makes him King" : Lord Chief Justice Coke quoting Bracton said in the case of Proclamations (1610) 77 ER 1352
The rule of law is a system in which no one, including government, is above the law; where laws protect fundamental rights; and where justice is accessible to all. It can be said to be the foundation of the building of the civil society in which just, peace, liberty and progress reside. It provides the foundation of socio-economic development, prevention of crime, protection of human rights, protection of dignity and provision of self-government. In short, the rule of law is a system of government in which a society maintains a set of good, just, and fair laws by which it and its government will be governed. The alternative to such a system, of course, is one in which the government can do whatever it wants and the people have no way to refuse laws that they don’t think are good, just, or fair.
Rule of law is a classical principle of administrative law. As a matter of fact this principle was one of the principles that acted as impediment development of Administrative Law principles. The irony further is that the rule of law is now an important part of modern Administrative Law. Whereas the rule of law is still the one of the very important principles regulating in common law countries and common law derived countries modern laws has denied some of the important parts of rule of law as proposed by Dicey at the start of 19th Century.
Dicey defined rule of Law as the “absolute supremacy or predominance of regular law as opposed to the influence of arbitrary power and excludes the existence of prerogatives or even wide discretionary power on the part of government” Dicey asserted that wherever there is discretion, there is room for arbitrariness which leads to