November 24, 2025
By Bob Glaves | CBF Executive Director
The rule of law has gotten more public attention this year than perhaps at any time since our country was founded on this fundamental principle almost 250 years ago. However, as much as we in the legal community understand the central importance of the rule of law right now, we can do a lot better in talking about it in a way that helps the public understand and appreciate its significance for our country.
This point really hit home as I heard inspiring remarks from Chief Justice Nels Peterson of the Supreme Court of Georgia at an ABA Access to Justice Conference last month. As he aptly put it, the rule of law means that “no one is above the law’s requirements or beneath its protections,” and he then went on to note the integral role that access to justice plays in making this principle a reality.
Justice Peterson’s full remarks on the rule of law are well worth a few minutes of your time, and I am going to focus on two aspects of his remarks below.
Talking about the Rule of Law in a Way Everyday People Can Hear Us
First, talking about this essential principle in a way that everyday people can understand and relate to is one of our most critical roles as trustees of the legal system. We all get it as lawyers and legal professionals, but we too often talk about it in an “insider” way that incorrectly assumes everyday people understand and appreciate this principle in the same way.
Most people remember learning in school that we all stand equal before the law and recognize this as a core value of our country (though, as noted below, they may legitimately question how well our legal system is living up to this promise). And we should not take for granted that the underpinnings of this fundamental principle are well understood by the public.
Justice Peterson’s remarks are a good example of how we can talk about the rule of law more effectively:
“The rule of law has always been fragile, because by its very nature it requires the strong and the rich to accept outcomes in favor of the weak and the poor. It requires popular majorities of all kinds to accept outcomes in favor of small, unpopular minority groups. And it requires the most powerful of all – the government – to accept and obey limits on government power. In short, no one is above the law’s requirements or beneath its protections.”
The Rule of Law’s Integral Connection to Access to Justice
The second aspect of Justice Peterson’s remarks on the rule of law I want to highlight is how well he tied in the integral connection to access to justice.
“Again, no one is above the law’s requirements or beneath its protections. These days, we spend a lot of time focusing on the first part. And rightly so.
But it’s critical that we don’t lose sight of the second part: no one is beneath the law’s protections. Now, merely to say those words out loud is to spotlight how far short of that principle we fall. In our system, if you don’t have a lawyer, the law’s protections are often illusory.”
Yep. Most of our rule of law conversations right now appropriately highlight the vital importance of government accountability to the law’s requirements. But if we want to maintain public support for this fundamental principle, we need to step up our efforts to ensure that people can justifiably believe that they all really do stand equal before the law.
As Justice Peterson said well, this is not an “either/or” proposition—accountability to the rule of law for people in power or access to justice for everyday people—they are two interrelated sides of the same coin. And it is incumbent on those of us in the legal community to lead the way on both fronts.