1. A substantive legal principle (under the rule of law known as respondeat superior, the employer is answerable for all wrongs committed by an employee in the course of the employment).
2. The supremacy of regular as opposed to arbitrary power (citizens must respect the rule of law). — Also termed supremacy of law.
3. The doctrine that every person is subject to the ordinary law within the jurisdiction (all persons within the United States are within the American rule of law).
4. The doctrine that general constitutional principles are the result of judicial decisions determining the rights of private individuals in the courts (under the rule of law, Supreme Court caselaw makes up the bulk of what we call “constitutional law”).
5. Loosely, a legal ruling; a ruling on a point of law (the ratio decidendi of a case is any rule of law reached by the judge as a necessary step in the decision). [Cases: Courts 87. C.J.S. Courts §§ 135–136.]
