The rule of law is often invoked without specifying which rule-of-law properties are meant. The concept has at least four distinct components:
- Generality: laws apply to everyone, including rulers
- Publicity: laws are known in advance
- Prospectivity: laws don't apply retroactively
- Stability: laws don't change arbitrarily
A legal system can have some of these and lack others. China has a relatively stable, publicly known legal code that doesn't bind the Party elite — it lacks generality. Retroactive legislation is common in emergency contexts.
These are independent properties. Conflating them obscures which element is actually missing in any given case.