Oakeshott on legal rules and the rule of law

The notion of rule of law has generated decisive debates about ways to guarantee fundamental rights and protect individual freedoms from government powers. Within the framework of certain philosophical jurisprudence, Michael Oakeshott has contributed in a relevant way to the interpretation of the conditions of normative civil association involved in the concept of rule of law. In this article, we intend to carry out a systematization of the main aspects of Oakeshott's theorizing of the rule of law: the framework of a philosophical jurisprudence, the critique of legal rationalism and the idea of rule of law as a non-instrumental normative association, that implies fidelity to the law and moral considerations on the acceptability of the law.