Traces of the Rule of Law as an Idea and Legal Principle in the Theory of the Ancient and Medieval Period: Some of the Characteristic Theoretical Considerations and their Contribution to the Contemporary Meaning

Abstract

When talking about the rule of law as a contemporary constitutional and theoretical principle, most of the public usually refers to the period of the emergence of theoretical models that tend to the modern understanding of the organization of the state, legal order, and society, from the period of the Enlightenment to the period of various theoretical concepts of the modern era. However, as it is known in the domain of constitutional theory, ideas concerning the concept and purpose of government, the constitution, laws and legislation, rights and obligations, legality and legitimacy, and all other categories that constitute elements of the principle of the rule of law (as it is understood today) – as a very complex notion, have been the subject of consideration since the earliest times, at the very beginnings of the development of the philosophical-legal thought. The purpose of this paper, by its capacity and scope, is not contained in the elaboration of all theoretical models regarding elements that make the content of the rule of law which appeared during the historical development of human civilization – which would otherwise be an impossible task, but in the elaboration of some characteristic theoretical considerations during ancient and medieval period in which the beginnings of the idea of the rule of law can be found as well as the very beginnings of the development of that idea in contemporary sense.