whether viewed formally, historically, politically, or as a coordinating device
in a game of strategic bargaining, the rule of law will remain a contested
concept for the foreseeable future.
It is perhaps useful to conclude by juxtaposing Judith Shklar’s late twentieth-
century observation that ‘‘acute fear’’ was at once the most destructive yet
most common form of modern social control, with her belief in what she
described as the ‘‘promise of the Rule of Law.’’ Such a promise entailed
the hope that a non-brutal ethos might increasingly not simply inform the
practices of courts but contextually shape the political practices of the state as
well. Her judgment remains astute that only in this way, as an ‘‘essential
element of constitutional government generally and representative democ-
racy particularly,’’ might the Rule of Law persist as one of ‘‘the oldest and the
newest of the theoretical and practical concerns of political theory’’ (Shklar
1998 , 36 ).
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330 shannon c. stimson