ABSTRACT
The legitimacy of a rule, or of a rule-making or rule-applying institution, is a function of the perception of those in the community concerned that the rule, or the institution, has come into being endowed with legitimacy: that is, in accordance with right process. The study of legitimacy thus focuses on the inherent capacity of a rule to exert pressure on states to comply. Perhaps the most self-evident of all characteristics making for legitimacy is textual determinacy. The degree of determinacy of a rule directly affects the degree of its perceived legitimacy. As determinacy is the linguistic or literary-structural component of legitimacy, so symbolic validation, ritual and pedigree provide its cultural and anthropological dimension. Ronald Dworkin illustrates the potency of coherence as a factor in legitimacy by asserting that a half-loaf regulation is even less acceptable than no loaf at all when it produces a checkerboard result. Coherence was achieved and the rule acquired powerful legitimacy.
