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the rule of law to solve all our problems? Clearly not - but which
of our problems is it actually designed to solve?

So in considering rule of law reforms we need to decide
exactly what the purpose is and how best to achieve it. This is not
done as often as you may think. Look at any website of an
organisation that promotes the rule of law. It will just assume the
rule of law is good and provide some indication what it means.
But they do not tell you how to achieve it. There is no road map,
but rather you are just instructed to get to the destination. For this
reason it is right to look at the relationship between rule of law
and democracy.

The rule of law has been set out as an important means for
achieving economic development. It has also criticized as a bastion
of privilege and an obstacle to development in the broader sense.
In the practical development context these days more attention is
given to matters that are not addressed or are even contradicted by
Dicey, such as constitution-building; persistent extra-legal actions
of the state; the democratic processes of legitimate parliamentary
law-making; the system of judicial review of administrative
actions; the setting up of special courts and enforcement agencies;
public participation; and infrastructural problems such as
capacity-building, security, corruption, legal education, judicial
independence, the separation of powers/ functions, and the danger
of ‘elite capture’. Through this connection of rule of law and
development rule of law itself has become an industry not just a
concept. Hence its extensive penumbra or shadow of meaning.
Rule of law means one thing to a legal scholar (constraint of
power); another to a policeman (rigorous law enforcement);
another to an activist (access to justice); and another to an
economist (good governance and sound institutions). But in
essence they are contemplating the same thing.

Thomas Carothers defined rule of law in the development
context as ‘a system in which the laws are public knowledge, are
clear in meaning, and apply equally to everyone. They enshrine

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