There is a huge difference between a society under the rule of law and a society under the rule of lawyers. The rule of law treats law as a product of legitimate, deliberate democratic acts, which remains stable, predictable, written down for all to know until changed by another such act of the people. As George Washington described in his farewell address, “The Constitution which at any time exists, till changed by an explicit and authentic act of the whole people, is sacredly obligatory upon all.” The rule of lawyers, by contrast, sees law as an invitation for creativity by a small coterie of legal elites who can make it the vanguard for social change without consulting the governed.
