The Rule of Law. Arguments for an institutional (legal) theory - This article aims to offer an interpretation of the potential of the Rule of Law in the present day. By conducting an historical reconstruction and comparative analysis, among other things, the notion of the Rule of Law is explained in terms of a specific normative standard, i.e. of an ideal objective, an institutional model against which existing laws can be compared critically. The normative significance is expressed here in terms of the concepts of institutional balance, not of the dominance and duality of law. Celebrated extensively in the more famous national constitutions and international charters, the ideal of the Rule of Law is defined here as
a) coherent with the historical constants through which its institutional meaning comes to different forms of expression,
b) extendible to the transformations of contemporary legal institutions, also beyond the state, and
c) conceptually sustainable in theoretical terms, where it is expressed so as to avoid falling into the partly connected, though different, controversies about morality or about the conditions under which law is valid.