The Fundamentals of the Rule of Law in F. A. Hayek’s Thinking

Abstract

In the 1960s and 1970s, F. A. Hayek showed through his writings some concern about the emptying of the foundations of the rule of law doctrine. It was crucial to recover and preserve the foundations of this doctrine
in order to guarantee the freedom of individuals before their peers and the State. It seems that, today, free societies go through a similar process of questioning and relativizing the the rule of law doctrine. The fundamentals of the rule of law defended by Hayek encompass individual and negative freedom, social evolutionism, and the empire of the applicable law in an impartial way. This article aims to study the fundamentals of the rule of law doctrine in F. A. Hayek. In an open society, a state of freedom can be enjoyed by everyone to use their knowledge for their own purposes, limited by universally applied general rules. The State must be limited by general principles to which the community has previously and constitutionally committed. Without the foundations of the rule of law, as Hayek taught, the administrative discretion of the State, the servitude of the will, and the constructivist rationalism of the norms rise.