Liberty: The Core Value Of The Rule Of Law

The rule of law, as a way of life, originated from the human nature of liberty. In reality, the rule of law takes the human right to liberty as its core. In its utmost sense, it is the concern for the free, harmonious and overall development of human beings. In the present world, the position and meaning of the rule of law have undergone great changes, but liberty, as its core value, has always been its accompanying spirit.The rule of law, a term of heavily western color, has gradually established its rightful position in contemporary Chinese context. The developmental history of the western rule of law proves that the rational contract culture, with liberty of individuals as its core, has a sustaining function for the establishment and development of the rule of law. This has a special sense for the Chinese rule of law. The western rule of law develops by trial and error. The crisis in the legal doctrines, as a miniature of the whole western cultural crisis, fully displays the consequence of the disintegration of value and instrumental rationality. The rule of law that deviates from the value of liberty will be inevitably reduced to an instrument, a "rightful" means of controlling people and oppressing people.The solution to a series of problems, such as, how to bring the rule of law into effect on a deeper level instead of remaining on the level of being a compulsory means, how to have the rule of law accepted both in concept and in practice and let it take root in people's life, etc., should be mainly based on the cultural analysis of the rule of law on a deep layer. Chinese cultural tradition centers on the empirical ethical culture of collective standard and lacks the sense of individualism and independence. Personal liberty is very limited. Elements of the rule of law are seriously absent. The world of daily...