Compliance with the Law

 

The government must clearly commit itself to use law as its most important governing tool. This is the basic requirement of effective regulation by law. To achieve this goal, compliance with law is necessary. Not only citizens have to comply with the law, it is even more important that government officials who are authorized by law to exercise powers must be bound by law. If officials do not abide by the law, the threats to the Rule of Law is far greater than citizens breaking the law. Whether officials are law-abiding will inevitably affect the capacity of the society to establish a law-abiding attitude. 

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Thus, the key is how to ensure government officials are law-abiding. Without external limitation mechanisms such as legislative oversight and judicial review, it is questionable whether law abidance by government officials can be achieved through the personal integrity of government officials and the internal disciplinary mechanism of the government.

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Citizens comply with the law on the basis of different reasons like fear of punishment, personal moral values or peer pressure. The reason behind may affect how far the Rule of Law can be realized.