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in our previous lesson on the English legal system what we did was introduce the subject of the rule of law now this lesson is just going to continue this in a brief amount of detail by talking about one of the most prominent interpretations of the rule of law this being the rule of law theory that is uh that that is pushed forward by and is elucidated by um AV dicey um which I've written here as DV DIY but it is Av Di's interpretation of rule of law a standing for Albert um we know already and I've made mention of Av dicey in previous lessons and we'll talk about DIY in a lot more detail when we continue looking at the UK Constitution but we know that the AV DIY is one of the most consequential League of legal minds and constitutionalist this country has ever seen specifically within the late 1800s he contributed a number of uh different theories principles and understandings of the UK Constitution the various role of the institutions within the UK government and as well as there principles of constitutional law and our English legal system the two most arguably the two most important theories that he developed were his elucidations of the principle of parliamentary sovereignty which we'll touch on very briefly in this series but in lot more detail when we do it in public law as well as this his theory of the rule of law we're going to talk about his interpretation of the rule of law and this is arguably one of the most popular views um on what the rule of law constitutes what what the rule of law actually outlines and tells us we should do and how one should act so AV dicey believed that the rule of law is derived out of three main principles of law so we noted in the previous lesson that one of the things that the rule of law is difficult to do is to Define in a quite succinct and clear uh way and so as a result of this people tend not to try and make and come to a complete definition of the rule of law instead they try to look at the various different principles which the rule of law is said to inhabit so different principles that assuming you have these different principles and assuming that we can elucidate these different principles we can then make the conclusion therefore that these constitute the rule of law and a DIY is no different he comes to the conclusion that there are three main principles which in conjunction with each other we we say is sufficient to create the rule of law these principles are there the fact that there is a lack of arbitrary power in the state the law is equal and then the final of these being that the law is supreme so these are the three major principles that derive out of the principle of the rule of law beginning first then with the uh first of these principles which is this idea that there is a lack of arbitary power the the law does not establish uh just establish sorry the limits on what people in society can and cannot do but the law also sets limitations on what the state can and cannot do so we know from previous lessons when we looked at what the law is uh we suggested that the law is essenti is essentially a uh an elucidation of of rule making within Society it limits what people can and cannot do within a society but for a dicey one of the principles that is ated within the rule of law is this idea that it is not just what Society can do and what Society cannot do individual people within Society but it is also a limitation on the power of the state and so in doing so where the state is acting beyond their power they are said to be acting beyond their Authority the Latin phraseology for this is to be acting ultrair and if they are acting ultrair then the law can step in and hold them to account this is what the the idea of lack of arbitrary power uh enshrined that there is not this arbitary power that exists within the legal system of England and Wales instead where there is the acting of arbitrary power where is where there is the acting of power beyond their Authority where the state does ACT ultrav then the law exists as a safeguard against arbitrary power and therefore holds them to account and checks their Authority now this is done in a lot of places through the process of administrative law and we will get to this when we look at judicial review in the second half of our Public Law series um but when we talk about judicial review it is a process by which we can limit the power of of the state to be acting ultrair to be acting beyond their Authority and so this is where judicial review comes in there is also other elements of administrative law that um that that exist that can hold the government to account but this is what um the process of judicial review view essentially entails and the understanding here is that the state is limited by the rule of law and the reason why this is the case is to protect a number of very fundamental and very uh foundational principles of the state these include principles pertaining to democracy as well as principles which protect the people against dictatorship and despotism the second principle of the rule of law is this idea that the rule that the law sorry is is equal there is equality uh it means that not only is the law equal in itself but that the law applies in an equal manner it must apply to everyone equally and so discrimination within a legal system is a fundamental violation of the rule of law and as a result of this it applies uh the the the the the the maxim the equal Maxim implies that nobody is above the law itself so when we talk about the application of law I made this very clear in the previous lesson that it applies to whom uh it needs to apply to essentially so for example the criminal law applies to everybody it is universal but if you for example do not own a company or do not operate within a company then it doesn't make sense to suggest that the that the the UK's company law applies to you it applies to everybody who owns a company equally uh similarly if you do not have kids or children then you you're not going to be subjected to child law so long as you don't have kids um if you then have kids then you will be subjected equally that's the general rule that is applied and it means that it does not matter how rich an individual is how poor they may be whether they are black or white male or female uh they must be treated equal equally under the law now one of the things that is quite interesting here is the Constitutional position of the monarchy in this regard because the monarchy from a constitutional from a constitutional perspective is actually seen as a of the law they are the makers of law they are the administers of law it is the crown that um that the subjects essentially the subjects I.E the people uh where the law applies to the it applies to the the people and the crown owns the law if you will and so there is this question of well if the Monarch if King Charles III decides therefore to uh commit a crime how does this reconcile with the principle of the the equality of law and the fact that nobody is above the law now strictly from a a constitutional perspective the monarchy is seen to be above the law but in terms of practical application if the if for example the King was caught speeding they would probably as a as a system um actually apply and apply the law themselves or at least have the law applied onto them and accept any kind of legal punishment that is in that is imposed um owing to the sort of uh the the sort of way in which the monarchy by convention is seen as above the is is viewed as above the law on paper but in reality is seen as a subject of the law in a similar way uh because essentially this begs the question about where sovereignty lies uh and that's a quite interesting debate and discussion to be had in fact there are quite a few different debates and discussions that are had relating to what the Monarch can do in a certain situation uh whether that be uh violating the law or declaring war or even things like refusing Royal Ascent for bills to become legislation all of these things really put uh the constitution in crisis if they were to ever happen the final principle that AV dice elucidates is this idea of supremacy of the law essentially what this refers to is uh the principle of supremacy of Law and I've written here the principle of Supremacy when it comes to Parliament but it doesn't necessarily refer specifically to Parliament because at the time that a dicey was writing the idea of stat stat Provisions becoming and being a significant source of law was less uh was less of a factor than it is today for example the the statutory Provisions within the legal system are far more substantial in in today's common uh understanding of the Constitution than previously uh but essentially AV dice is elucidating the the idea that the law is is supreme and the law has Supreme sovereignty and authority and we then can tie this into the principle of parliamentary sovereignty in the sense that Parliament today is the Supreme lawmaking Authority in the United Kingdom nothing is above Parliament nothing is above parliament's ability to create new law and so essentially this means that parliamentary legislation is supreme Parliament has the ability to make and unmake any law they so choose we'll get onto this in more detail uh in a few lessons on the English legal system and we'll get into it in a great amount of detail in Les lons on constitutional and administrative law in future uh lessons time on that particular topic as well