The Ideology of the Rule of Law

The law is, on the one hand, always to some extent an expression of the dominant political power and ideology, while on the other hand it is relatively autonomous towards politics and other value-normative social phenomena, such as morality, customs, and religion. Despite the fact that from the deepest ontological perspective the separate existence of law and politics is an illusion, this separation must be acknowledged and maintained in our social life. The more autonomous the law, the more it develops its specific ideology. The latter can either serve as an appropriate counterbalance to the excessive tendencies of politics, or it can be abused for different political purposes. In the first case, we can speak about the constructive role of the law vs. politics, while in the second case its role is (self)destructive. In the first case different checks and balances between law and politics serve democratic society, while in the second case the differences between both phenomena are blurred, which leads to authoritarianism or totalitarianism.