ABSTRACT
With the emergence of autonomous law, the legal order becomes a resource for taming repression. Historically, that achievement may be claimed for what is celebrated as the “Rule of Law.” This phrase connotes more than the mere existence of law. It refers to a legal and political aspiration, the creation of “a government of laws and not of men.” In that sense, the rule of law is born when legal institutions acquire enough independent authority to impose standards of restraint on the exercise of governmental power.
