The German Concept of the Rule of Law

Abstract

In this article, I would like to introduce the concept of the rule of law through the ideas of German authors on the subject. The Anglo-Saxon, German and French approaches to the rule of law are well known. The best known German scholars of the idea of the rule of law were the jurists Robert von Mohl and Carl Theodor Welcker, but also the views of Kant, Fichte and Humboldt will be discussed in relation to the paradigm of the rule of law. Of course, for all democratic thinkers, the concept of the rule of law means the same thing: a democratic exercise of power based on law for the benefit of human humanity, in which the most basic principles of state organisation and constitutional values are upheld and human rights are fully respected.