The rule of law and the rule of empire: A.V. Dicey in imperial context

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

28 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

The idea of the rule of law, more ubiquitous globally today than ever before, owes a lasting debt to the work ofVictorian legal theorist A. V Dicey. But for all of Dicey’s influence, little attention has been paid to the imperial entanglements of his thought, including on the rule of law. This article seeks to bring the imperial dimensions of Dicey’s thinking about the rule of law into view. On Dicey’s account, the rule of law represented a distinctive English civilisational achievement, one that furnished a liberal justification for British imperialism. And yet Dicey was forced to acknowledge that imperial rule at times required arbitrariness and formal inequality at odds with the rule of law. At a moment when the rule of law has once more come to license all sorts of transnational interventions by globally powerful political actors, Dicey’s preoccupations and ambivalences are in many ways our own.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)739-764
Number of pages26
JournalModern Law Review
Volume81
Issue number5
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Sept 2018

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'The rule of law and the rule of empire: A.V. Dicey in imperial context'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this