Requiem for the Rule of Law

The phrase “Rule of Law” (ROL) is frequently referenced in the major media but seldom defined.  Google calls it “a principle under which all persons, institutions and entities are accountable to laws that are: [P]publicly promulgated, [E]equally enforced [and] [I]independently adjudicated.” To me, the rule of law means the legal protection of democratic institutions and individual human rights. It puts legal guardrails on abuses of power against institutions and individuals.

Globally, the ROL is represented by the United Nations, the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the International Criminal Court (ICC), the World Trade Organization (WTO) and by the Second and Fourth Hague Conventions of 1899, the Fourth Hague Convention of 1907 and the Genocide Convention of 1948.

Domestically, we rely on the U.S. Constitution and Supreme Court interpretations to express the Rule of Law. Enforcement relies on adherence to law by individuals and institutions that hold power and by the acceptance by ordinary citizens. In the present environment, the major ROL breaches have occurred in the mass deportations of immigrants, in the punishment of free speech, and in the breakdown of congressionally created government bodies.

Not surprisingly, such gaps in legal norms have facilitated dark money, flawed elections, kidnappings, the deportation of immigrants without due process, and open corruption.

Internationally,  the demise of legal rules is most evident in the Israel/Gaza conflict. Up to now, there has been only limited legal accountability for the war crimes of Hamas in its brutal October 7, 2023 attacks on Israeli civilians and for Israel’s continuing genocidal retribution (a 22-month campaign that has taken more than 60,000 lives (mostly women and children). The failure of the ICJ to issue a final determination of “genocide,” the pledge of some members of the ICC not to enforce arrest warrants against top Israeli officials, and U.S. complicity by providing lethal arms and  diplomatic cover to Israel reflect a blanket repudiation of the international legal order that the U.S. helped establish in the last century.

The IDF’s current campaign is causing mass starvation, beginning with the most vulnerable (infants, young children and the elderly). According to a July 29 article in The Guardian, “More people in Gaza died of starvation in just over 11 days than in the previous 21 months of conflict.” Once famine takes hold it leads to mass starvation, unless adequate food and water become available.

Moreover, Israel’s war crimes under the Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907 as amended and the Genocide Convention of 1948 have included the targeted killings of medical personnel and journalists, and the devastation of hospitals, universities, mosques, and churches.

Domestically, the rule of law has collapsed on several fronts.  In some recent court cases (such as executive branch refusal to obey a court order to abort the deportation of immigrants to San Salvator’s torture prison), the White House has ignored federal court decisions.  Such actions amount to an attack on the fundamental democratic principle of checks and balances. It has also led to the emergence of an  all-powerful presidency.

The ongoing punishments of pro-Palestinian protesters are blatant attacks on the free speech protection of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The kidnappings and detentions of foreign-born university students and faculty who protest the Gaza genocide make a mockery of free speech and due process protections.

Efforts by the Texas legislature to redistribute voting districts (with an avowed aim of capturing five new Republican seats) are normalizing illegal gerrymandering prior to the upcoming mid-term elections. As such reordering threatens to disenfranchise large numbers of people of color, they erode public confidence in the electoral process.

Disregard of court judgments, thuggish kidnappings by masked ICE agents, military deployments to quell peaceful civilian protests, and the widespread absence of due process in deportation cases are the most egregious examples of an overall disregard of legal limits by the executive branch.

The march to authoritarianism is unconstrained by legal norms. The president’s almost daily tweets and executive orders have become the phony equivalent of “law.” They lack constitutional foundation and often change direction according to executive whim. Legal breaches are increasingly ignored.

So, what is the societal impact of the ROL’s demise?   Most significantly, inequality: powerful people lord over the weak, the wealthy crush the poor and middle class with inflation, and the president repeatedly asserts the assumed superiority of white males. No wonder that our immigrant neighbors are in terror of ICE, that the LGBT community fears discrimination and that the rest of the country quakes over what may be coming next.

We need to restore the Rule of Law.

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