There are basically two ways a society can be ruled. The first and most primitive is that it can be ruled by people which means that each person is subject to the authority of a dictator. There are no rules for the people to follow since the people follow commands of the dictator.
This is the essence of a tribal society but the rule of law stops that because laws provide a zone where people can't be told what to do. This is where we separate legal and illegal actions that any person can take and all legal actions are simply actions where the law can't stop us from doing something. It is where those in power can't touch us with their authority since we did not violate any rules.
The rule of law is not meant to restrict our freedom but to provide for it by declaring a boundary between where our behavior can be controlled and where it can't. Where it can't is our own free-space that we may play around in and we can't be told what to do by those in power until we cross the boundary into the legal sphere. The rule of law is a self-limiting limitation on those in power and it only works when those in power follow it to a letter.
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