Not every law that comes out of Parliament is publicly justifiable

The Rule of Law and Judicial Independence

Anwar-sodomy-trial1 “According to F.A. Hayek, this means that government in all its actions is bound by rules fixed and announced beforehand which make it possible to foresee with fair certainty how the authority will use its coercive powers in given circumstances, and to plan one’s individual affair on the basis of this knowledge. That definition is indeed a powerful formulation of the concept but I would hasten to add a major rider to it, which is, that the coercive powers referred to must be predicated on the basis that the laws in the first place must meet the criterion of justness. Hence the rule of law means the exercise of publicly justifiable power. I emphasise the phrase ‘publicly justifiable power’ because not every law that comes out of Parliament is publicly justifiable. In other words, the rule of law requires the application of moral standards to legislative output. And this is because every individual possesses rights founded on justice which are inviolable. The positivity of law is not sufficient to establish its lawfulness. If laws are unjust then the rule of law itself is in jeopardy.” – Anwar Ibrahim