The rule of law, judicial independence and the right to good administration – myth or reality?

Abstract In this paper the author focuses on some core notions linking together judicial independence and good administration through the thread of the rule of law. The rule of law is the golden thread running through all public administration (which includes also the judicial administration) of a state, with the ultimate aim being the common good. This is an ideal to which all modern, so-called democratic, states should aspire. The author looks at the practical meaning of the rule of law and suggests an approach based on a core of eight principles, the so-called Bingham’s “sub-principles”, and adds two more to them. Finally, it is argued that one cannot speak of the rule of law, of fundamental human rights and of good administration as if these were concepts isolated from each other