the.com/rule of law

means The principle that everyone—including rulers and governments—is bound by publicly known laws, rather than by the arbitrary whims of whoever holds power.

from The phrase crystallized in 19th-century English legal and political writing, most famously through jurist A.V. Dicey, who used it to describe English constitutionalism's core promise: no one is above the law and no one can be punished except for a distinct breach of it. The underlying idea is much older, tracing back to ancient political philosophy's suspicion of rule by unchecked men rather than rule by settled, impartial law — but the compact phrase itself is a product of modern legal theory trying to name what makes a government lawful rather than merely powerful.