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“The rule of law must prevail even when it is inconvenient. Selective enforcement corrodes legitimacy and invites disorder. A lawful state protects both authority and liberty through impartial application.”

Last update Sept. 26, 2026. History

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“The rule of law must prevail over the rule of the mob”

Margaret Thatcher (1925–2013) British stateswoman and politician

Remarks http://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/105691 on Orgreave picketing (30 May 1984) <br class="br">Second term as Prime Minister <br class="br">Context: You saw the scenes that went on in television last night. I must tell you that what we have got is an attempt to substitute the rule of the mob for the rule of law, and it must not succeed. It must not succeed. There are those who are using violence and intimidation to impose their will on others who do not want it... Ladies and Gentlemen we need the support of everyone in this battle which goes to the very heart of our society. The rule of law must prevail over the rule of the mob.

“This is not the “rule of law”…it is the “rule of law enforcement.””

Barrett Brown (1981) American journalist, essayist and satirist

The Guardian, "Barrett Brown statement: 'This is not the rule of law, it is the rule of law enforcement'" http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/jan/22/barrett-brown-hacking-sentencing-full-statement-text, 22 January 2015.

“If the law be thought to be improper or inconvenient, application to correct it must be made elsewhere, and not to those who are bound by the repeated and solemn judgments of their predecessors.”

Sir Francis Buller, 1st Baronet (1746–1800) British judge

Bishop of London v. Ffytche (1800), 1 East, 495.

“… did not set out to destroy the large corporation. Instead, each attempted to protect the legitimacy of the system by using existing law against the worst offenders or proposing new laws to change the rules of the system.”

Neil Fligstein (1951) American sociologist

Source: The transformation of corporate control, 1993, p. 89

“"Just and true liberty, equal and impartial liberty," in matters spiritual and temporal, is a thing that all men are clearly entitled to by the eternal and immutable laws of God and nature, as well as by the law of nations and all well-grounded municipal laws, which must have their foundation in the former.”

Samuel Adams (1722–1803) American statesman, Massachusetts governor, and political philosopher

The Rights of the Colonists (1772)

“Property rights, governance structures and rules of exchange are arenas in which modern states establish rules for economic actors. States provide stable and reliable conditions under which firms organize, compete, cooperate and exchange. The enforcement of the laws affects what conceptions of control can produce stable markets. There are political contests over the content of laws, their applicability to given firms and markets, and the extent and direction of state intervention into economy. Such laws are never neutral. They favor certain groups of firms.”

Neil Fligstein (1951) American sociologist

Source: Markets as politics: A political-cultural approach to market institutions, 1996, p. 657

“I am convinced the days of reckless corruption in this country are numbered. Even now, history is drawing a line in the sand and there is a war that rages. Consider whether you will fight on the right side when the rule of integrity is finally realised. Because that day is coming. As much as integrity, impartiality is a good principle to espouse and a difficult practice to achieve. Yet achieve it you must. The purpose of the police is to enforce the law, and the law favours no man. Your decisions as such, must never be subject to the charge of discrimination.”

Uhuru Kenyatta (1961) Kenyan politician

On modernizing police in Kenya, quoted in " President Kenyatta promises modernization of police service https://citizentv.co.ke/news/president-kenyatta-promises-modernization-of-police-service-115214/", CitizenTV (February 19, 2016).

“Law enforcement ranks are filled with people like my grandfather. But, to be clear, although I am from a law enforcement family, and have spent much of my career in law enforcement, I’m not looking to let law enforcement off the hook. Those of us in law enforcement must redouble our efforts to resist bias and prejudice. We must better understand the people we serve and protect—by trying to know, deep in our gut, what it feels like to be a law-abiding young black man walking on the street and encountering law enforcement. We must understand how that young man may see us. We must resist the lazy shortcuts of cynicism and approach him with respect and decency.”

James Comey (1960) American lawyer and the seventh director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)

2010s, Hard Truths: Law Enforcement (2015)

“One of the effects of civilization is to diminish the rigour of the application of the law of natural selection.”

Francis Galton (1822–1911) British polymath: geographer, statistician, pioneer in eugenics

"Hereditary Talent and Character" in MacMillan's Magazine Vol. XII (May - October 1865), p. 326.
Other works
Context: One of the effects of civilization is to diminish the rigour of the application of the law of natural selection. It preserves weakly lives that would have perished in barbarous lands.

“If there has been any crime, it must be prosecuted. If there has been any property of the United States illegally transferred or leased, it must be recovered…. I propose to employ special counsel of high rank drawn from both political parties to bring such actions for the enforcement of the law. Counsel will be instructed to prosecute these cases in the courts so that if there is any guilt it will be punished; if there is any civil liability it will be enforced; if there is any fraud it will be revealed; and if there are any contracts which are illegal they will be canceled. Every law will be enforced. And every right of the people and the Government will be protected.”

Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933) American politician, 30th president of the United States (in office from 1923 to 1929)

Calvin Coolidge, statement on the Teapot Dome scandal, The New York Times (January 27, 1924), p. 1. Quoted by Senator Edward Martin, address to the Mifflin County Republican Committee, Lewistown, Pennsylvania (January 25, 1952), Congressional Record (January 28, 1952), vol. 98, Appendix, p. A400.
1920s

“The rule of law must prevail even when it is inconvenient. Selective enforcement corrodes legitimacy and invites disorder. A lawful state protects both authority and liberty through impartial application.”

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