14 - Thomas Hobbes and the Rule by Law Tradition

Summary

Thomas Hobbes is the founder of the rule by law tradition in modern Western thought. It argues that there is no more to law than what the holder of supreme legislative power chooses to enact, whatever its content. Hobbes founds it in opposition to the conception of the rule of law exemplified in the writings of Sir Edward Coke according to which the common law, as interpreted by judges, contains fundamental legal and moral principles which condition the content of enacted or statute law. Coke and others in this rule by law tradition thus consider the rule of law to be a moral good.