The phrase “rule of law” has been used, on average, more than three times on every parliamentary sitting day over the past 10 years. But what does it mean? Has the UK anything to learn from the definition of the phrase by the Venice Commission of the Council of Europe, or from the experience of the EU’s institutions in seeking to reverse the slide into illiberal democracy in parts of our own continent? And what does the rule of law have to say about ouster clauses, retrospective legislation and the clarity or otherwise of our political constitution?
These issues are all touched on in my keynote address to the Administrative Law Bar Association conference in London, given on 12 July 2025.
