Jurisdiction(s):
United Kingdom

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Key definition

Authority definition

What does Authority mean? In practice, Authority refers to the public sector client that procures and manages a project or service and is the named counterparty in the contract. In public procurement, PFI/PPP, DBFM/DBFOM and outsourcing documents, it is a contractual shorthand for the “contracting authority” defined in legislation (England & Wales and Northern Ireland: Public Contracts Regulations 2015; Scotland: Public Contracts (Scotland) Regulations 2015; Ireland: European Union (Award of Public Authority Contracts) Regulations 2016). Typical Authorities include a local authority, an NHS trust or health board, a central government department or minister, a non‑departmental public body or agency, or another body...

Rule of Law: Theory, Bingham’s Principles, Comparative Traditions, and Its Expression in the ECHR, Constitutional Reform Act 2005, and UK Case Law

Published by a LexisNexis Public Law expert

Practice notes

Introduction

The rule of law is a cornerstone of fair governance. Although infamously difficult to pin down, its core has long been recognised: those who rule must do so through law, and remain answerable to law’s Authority rather than standing above it. Contemporary perspectives highlight democracy and human rights as vital to enriching a fuller account of the rule of law. In this thicker view, legality works alongside democratic accountability and the safeguarding of rights to complete the picture.

Background

Plato, in the Laws, places in the mouth of an unnamed Athenian the view that rulers are servants or stewards of the law—not for Novelty’s sake, but because the welfare or decline of the polis turns on that service. Where law is subordinated and lacks authority, the state heads towards ruin; yet where law holds supremacy over the rulers, and rulers acknowledge themselves its inferiors, there is preservation and every favour the Gods can bestow. The message is that the commonwealth is safest when leaders bow to law’s primacy, and imperilled when they do not. Echoing this classical stance of legality, Aristotle, writing in Politics, adds that order is law; and that it is more fitting that law should...

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