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14 Int'l. In-House Counsel J. 7401 (2021)
The Rule of Law and Populism

handle is hein.journals/iihcj14 and id is 336 raw text is: International In-house Counsel Journal Vol.14, No. 57, Autumn 2021, 7401 The Rule of law and Populism IAN MCDOUGALL EVP & General Counsel, LexisNexis, USA I will discuss two concepts; the rule of law and populism. Specifically, I want to look at the effect of one on the other. I should point out that these are my personal views but I hope still valuable despite that. Like all lawyers, I like to start by defining things. It's important to understand exactly what we mean. There are as many definitions of the rule of law as there are people who have considered the rule of law. I often say if I asked 7 lawyers to define the Rule of Law I get 8 different definitions. In fact some institutions, for example the United Nations, seem to produce a different definition every time they look at the subject. The Rule of Law appeared in the Preamble to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948). Two further reports on the subject issued by the UN in 2002 & 2004 discuss the point. Another point, apart from the multiple definitions point, is that their results demonstrate the difficulty that a non-historical approach leads us to. The first one refers to * an independent judiciary, * independent human rights institutions, * defined and limited powers of government and fair and open elections (I will return to the subject of democracy a little later although, in a spoiler alert for what is to come, I should emphasize that democracy and populism are not the same thing). The second report focuses on the elements of * quality of legislation, * supremacy of law, * equality before the law, * accountability to the law, * legal certainty, * procedural and legal transparency, * avoidance of arbitrariness, * separation of powers. Further to this, a 2005 Resolution of the UN Human Rights Commission focuses on the elements of the separation of powers, the supremacy of law and the equal protection under the law. One important difference between my research and the way in which the Rule of Law has been approached in the past is by way of its origin. Most modern organizations have approached the subject by getting groups of people together and reaching some kind of ISSN 1754-0607 print/ISSN 1754-0607 online International In-house Counsel Journal

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