Originally posted to the Tennyson blog, on February 24, 2012. While much of this website is commentary upon the Rule of Law without ever using the words, this serves as a direct statement. Much of the content of this site — whereever it touches upon the aesthetic or the nomic — speaks to the issue of the Rule of Law, something which morally horrifies me. This moment is the best direct refutation of the idea I have ever seen, and perhaps the best brief commentary on law in general I have ever seen.

To note, my "Noble Blasphemy" essay is a full explication of the idea, though without directly addressing the idea of "the rule of law." One day, I might return to the idea specifically.

Adding a couple more favorite quotations to Facebook, and thought I'd place this one here as well, which came to mind while I was thinking about the fallacy known as the Rule of Law this morning. One of my all time favorite legal (/social/critical/aesthetic) moments:

Law reflects but in no sense determines the moral worth of society. The values of a reasonably just society will reflect themselves in a reasonably just law. The better the society, the less law there will be. In Heaven there will be no law, and the lion will lie down with the lamb. The values of an unjust society will reflect themselves in an unjust law. The worse the society, the more law there will be. In Hell there will be nothing but law, and due process will be meticulously observed.

From Grant Gilmore. The Ages of American Law.

(To note, he is, in his words, "paraphrasing Holmes.")