Remarks On The Formation Of The Rule Of Law In England

Abstract:The Rule of Law, not only an institutional framework but also more than a governing protocol, involves the pursuit of value and the awareness of rights on a higher level. Rule of Law culture, different from the legal culture, has been free from the restrictions of particular nations or regions, performs as a higher level of thinking, behavior, and life style, advocating the supremacy of law, the protection of civil rights, the balance of powers, thereby the Law can be authorized and wins people's trust and recognition. As the world's first nation achieved the Rule of Law, England is a model for the germination of its original awareness of the Rule of Law culture, which is absolutely enlightening.From the cultural perspective, we study the formation of the Rule of Law in England based on the analysis of the explicit and implicit structures. Systematically, parliamentary sovereignty, judicial independence and well-known constitutional documents played a big role in the formation of the British culture of the Rule of Law, while the ideal and mental part, which involves the awareness of rights, the admiration of conventional wisdom, and the compromise between various forces, is the cradle of English culture of the Rule of Law.Because of these unique features, the endogenous culture of the Rule of Law in England looks gradualistic, unique and conservative. The causation began from the balance of powers in the Germanic era, and later in the Middle Ages, the struggle between religious and royal powers, the game between nobility and royalty are the seeds of democracy and the Rule of Law; the development of commodity economy resulted in the growth of civil society, which changed the political structure as well, and the Contract became the key to the distribution of powers and rights.It's helpful to study English culture of the Rule of Law when we explore the Rule of Law in China, and conduct a constructive discussions based on the reference of its development in England. China's Rule of Law is supposed to be able to grow when we have fully cultivated the market economy, the awareness of rights, and respected the supremacy of law, Checks and Balances and judicial independence.