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9 Korean J. Int'l & Comp. L. 1 (2021)

handle is hein.journals/kjicl9 and id is 1 raw text is: KOREAN JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL KJCL BRILL AND COMPARATIVE LAW 9 (2021) 1-3 N IJ H O F F brill.com/kjic The Rule of Law and the Law of the Sea An Editorial Note to the Special Issue Keyuan Zou Distinguished Professor, School of Law, Dalian Maritime University, Dalian, China zoukeyuan@dlmu. edu.cn The term 'rule of law' is a common jargon which frequently appears in govern- ment documents, national laws, literature and media. As defined by Black's Law Dictionary, the rule of law is 'a legal principle, of general application, sanctioned by the recognition of authorities, and usually expressed in the form of a maxim or logical proposition', and 'the rule of law, sometimes called the supremacy of law, provides that decisions should be made by the applica- tion of known principles or laws without the intervention of discretion in their application'.1 According to A.V. Dicey, the concept of the rule of law should con- tain two principles: the supremacy or predominance of regular law (as opposed to the influence of arbitrary power) and equality before the law (or the equal subjection of all classes to the ordinary law of the land administered by the ordi- nary law courts).2 It can be seen that there are at least two essential elements in the definition of the rule of law: supremacy of law, and equality before the law. While the concept of rule of law is mainly embodied in the domestic legal systems,3 it is recently extended to the international arena for global gov- ernance. The United Nations has started its discussions of the rule of law at both national and international levels since 2006. As expressed by the United Nations, 'the rule of law is a principle of governance in which all per- sons, institutions and entities, public and private, including the State itself, are 1 Black's Law Dictionary, 6th Edition (West Group, St Paul, Minnesota, 199o), at 1332. 2 See A.V. Dicey, 'The Rule of Law, in F.L. Morton (Ed.), Law, Politics and the Judicial Process in Canada, 2nd Edition (University of Calgary Press, Calgary, 1992), at 17. 3 For example, the amended Chinese Constitution in 1999, in Article 5, adds, 'the People's Republic of China implements law to govern the State and construct the socialist country in accordance with the rule of law'. The English version is available in BEIJING REVIEW, 3-9 May 1999, at 14-15. © KONINKLIJKE BRILL NV, LEIDEN, 2021 1 DOI:10.1163/22134484-12340141

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