The Rule of Law and Equality

Paul Gowder*

*Corresponding author for this work

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    25 Scopus citations

    Abstract

    This paper describes and defends a novel and distinctively egalitarian conception of the rule of law. Official behavior is to be governed by preexisting, public rules that do not draw irrelevant distinctions between the subjects of law. If these demands are satisfied, a state achieves vertical equality between officials and ordinary people and horizontal legal equality among ordinary people.

    Original languageEnglish (US)
    Pages (from-to)565-618
    Number of pages54
    JournalLaw and Philosophy
    Volume32
    Issue number5
    DOIs
    StatePublished - Sep 1 2013

    Funding

    This work was begun during my Ph.D. studies at Stanford University, and was supported by the Gerhard Casper Stanford Graduate Fellowships and the Geballe Dissertation Prize Fellowships at the Stanford Humanities Center. For individual suggestions, I thank Joshua Cohen, James Fearon, Avner Greif, Josiah Ober, Robert Gordon, Steven Burton, Alexander Somek, Kristen Bell, Rachel Brule, Tobey Scharding, Dan Markel, Andrew Rehfeld, Micah Schwartzman, Brian Tamanaha, and my excellent research assistants, Shawn McCullough and Estiven Rojo. I also thank the participants in workshops and talks at Stanford University, the University of Iowa, the University of Virginia, Washington University in St. Louis, and the University of California, Hastings.

    ASJC Scopus subject areas

    • Philosophy
    • Law

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