ABSTRACT
Rule of law is the very foundation of human rights. In the Western legal tradition, law is applied equally to all; it is binding on the lawgiver and is meant to prevent arbitrary action by the ruler. Law guarantees a realm of freedom for the members of a political community that is essential to the protection of life and human dignity against tyrannical oppression and to the regulation of human relations within the community. This concept of the rule of law is based on the idea that because law embodies basic ethical norms, it is traditionally regarded as an absolute—although it is envisaged by some as relative to changing social values—and should take precedence over momentary and arbitrary political aims or a ruler’s personal whims. The communist system, which is based on class struggle, is the antithesis of the harmonious order to which Confucianism aspired.
