Henry de Bracton, On the Laws and Customs of England (c. 1250):
"The King is under the Law for it is the Law that maketh him a King."
(as translated by C. S. Lewis in English Literature in the Sixteenth Century,
1954, p. 48). http://www.solcon.nl/arendsmilde/cslewis/reflections/e-thsquotes.htm
A.V. Dicey, The Law of the Constitution, ch. 4 (8th ed. 1915); Dicey (1885), http://oll.libertyfund.org/Home3/Book.php?recordID=1316 on three meanings of the phrase:
“It means, in the first place, the absolute
supremacy or predominance of regular law as opposed to the influence of
arbitrary power, and excludes the use of arbitrariness, of prerogative,
or even of wide discretionary authority on the part of the government.
Englishmen are ruled by law, and by the law alone; a man may with us be
punished for a breach of law, but he can be punished for nothing else.”
“It means, again, equality before
the law, or the equal subjection of all classes to the ordinary law of
the land administered by the ordinary Law Courts; the ‘rule of law’ in
this sense excludes the idea of any exemption of officials from the duty
of obedience to the law which governs other citizens or from the jurisdiction
of the ordinary tribunals . . . .
“The ‘rule of law,’ lastly, may be used
as a formula for expressing the fact that with us the law of the constitution,
the rules which in foreign countries naturally form part of a constitutional
code, are not the source but the consequence of the rights of individuals,
as defined and enforced by the Courts; that, in short, the principles of
private law have with us been by the action of the Courts and Parliament
so extended as to determine the position of the Crown and of its servants;
thus the constitution is the result of the ordinary law of the land.”
Friedrich A. Hayek, The Road to Serfdom, ch. 6 (1945) (also on p. 49 of the Reader's Digest condensed version (April 1945):
"Stripped of all technicalities, [the rule of law] means that government in all its actions is bound by rules fixed and announced beforehand – rules 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 affairs on the basis of this knowledge. Though this ideal can never be perfectly achieved . . . the essential point, that the discretion left to the executive organs wielding coercive power should be reduced as much as possible, is clear enough."
Hayek, The Constitution of Liberty, ch. 14 (1960):
“Mankind has learned from long and painful experience that the law of
liberty must possess certain attributes. What are they?
“The first point that must be stressed
is that, because the rule of law means that government must never coerce
an individual except in the enforcement of a known rule, it constitutes
a limitation on the powers of all government, including the powers of the
legislature. It is a doctrine concerning what the law ought to be,
concerning the general attributes that particular laws should possess.”
. . . .
“The second chief attribute which must
be required of true laws is that they be known and certain.”
. . . .
“The third requirement of true law is
equality.”
Paul Johnson, Laying Down the Law, The Wall St. Journal, March 10, 1999, http://www.opinionjournal.com/extra/?id=65000285
"The most important political development of the second millennium was the firm establishment, first in one or two countries, then in many, of the rule of law. Its acceptance and enforcement in any society is far more vital to the happiness of the majority than is even democracy itself. For democracy, without the rule of law to uphold the wishes of the electorate, is worthless, as the history of the past half-century has shown again and again in Africa, Latin America and Asia. The Soviet Union had, in theory, a wonderfully democratic constitution, But it lacked the rule of law entirely, and as a result Stalin was able to murder 30 million of its citizens and die safely in his bed, unarraigned and unpunished.
"What do we mean by the rule of law? We mean a judicial regime in which
everyone is equal before the law, and everyone--and every institution--is
subject to it."