I once had a hardback copy of Lex Rex on my bookshelf. It was written by Scottish Presbyterian minister Samuel Rutherford, published in 1644, and meaning the “law is king”.  (I always liked the title because I have a friend named Lex and knew a dog called Rex.) Unfortunately I never read the book, but now understand that it’s a classic in the discussion of the critical relationship between the law (lex) and the king (rex).

The concept re-entered my thoughts during a recent consideration of the different empires in the Book of Daniel. During the Babylonian empire, the order was very much Rex Lex, with the king above the law. However in the empire that succeeded them, namely the Medes and the Persians, the order was reversed, with the king coming under the law; as Daniel discovered when he was dispatched to the lion’s den, and the king being unable to do anything but acquiesce.

Every jurisdiction throughout the world has to make a choice in this matter, whether to be Rex Lex or Lex Rex. In western history, wars have been fought to make it Lex Rex; and that order seems to be the safer of the two. But in today’s politics, the mood seems to be for a new order, at least in some parts of the west, at least in the mind of some persons in the west; and to this humble Presbyterian citizen, that shift seems destined to vex.