This paper reveals the impact of EU conditionality on rule of law development in six countries from South Eastern Europe: two EU membership countries (Bulgaria, Romania), two EU candidate countries (Serbia, Albania) and two neighborhood countries (Moldova, Ukraine). By distinguishing between two...

The relations between “rule of law (fazhi)” and “virtue politics (dezhi)” have been repeatedly debated in China over the last century. After a brief introduction to pre-twentieth-century Chinese discussions of these themes, the essay focuses on two such debates, from the mid-1910s and...

As a young statesman, Lincoln articulated his fear that demagoguery and the "mobocratic spirit" threatened to undermine the rule of law in the American polity. In Young Mr. Lincoln John Ford and Lamar Trotti tell a story that captures with striking clarity this central them in Lincoln's...

During the Financial Crisis of 2008, executive officials pushed the boundaries of their legal powers as well as successfully demanding broad, open-ended delegations of new powers. This paper closely analyzes the legal bases of the U.S. policy responses to the financial crisis, yielding insights...

In this paper, I examine the role of states in establishing rule of law. After challenging many of the classical definitions I make a special emphasis on the need to conceptualize rule of law as compliance equilibrium. I also call for caution with data currently used to measure Rule of Law and I...

There is a perennial debate regarding whether we should care about relative deprivation – inequality – or only about absolute deprivation – poverty. In this paper I offer a reason to care about inequality per se. I develop a theory connecting high levels of inequality to the failure to...