ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the theoretical implications of the expressions “rule of law” and “law-based state” in the context of their historical origins and examines ways in which both concepts are reflected in Soviet legal thought. The phrase “rule of law” came to be used in the United States in a different sense. Americans added to the English emphasis on the historical foundations of legality an emphasis on its foundations in written federal and state constitutions that proclaimed such civil liberties as freedom of religion, speech, press, and assembly. From the perspective of the rule of law, the strongest feature of both drafts is their reliance on the judiciary to supervise the constitutionality of statutes, decrees, and regulations of the legislative and executive or administrative branches of government. The concept of Rechtsstaat, or pravovoe gosudarstvo, is consistent, at least, with the assumption that the state itself is the highest, if not the only, source of the law through which it operates.
