The authors of the article analyze the aspect of the doctrine and principle of the Rule of Law – its sources – which is insufficiently understood in Ukrainian jurisprudence. Their understanding, as well as the interpretation of the concept of the rule of law in general, remains no less pluralistic and essentially controversial in the legal environment. The research version of the article is based on T. Bingham’s understanding and interpretation of the aforementioned sources, since it was this version which became decisive for the Venice Commission to develop a consensus understanding of the key components of the rule of law.

The purpose of the article is to comprehend and summarize the sources of the Rule of Law according to T. Bingham’s concept.

The main results of the study are most concisely and nevertheless fully set out in its Conclusions. T. Bingham’s concept of the Rule of Law, as recognized by the most authoritative representatives of the expert community, currently represents the doctrine and principle of the rule of law most adequately among all other relevant phenomena. This is possible because it not only impartially, clearly and systematically reveals their components, but also their key sources, and allows us to understand them not as frozen values once and for all introduced by someone from outside, but rather demonstrates the human nature and contextuality of these sources, which have absorbed the dynamics and dialectics of all historical epochs through which these legal phenomena have passed.

T. Bingham proved that each of the key sources of the rule of law at the time of its emergence was the tip of the iceberg of the rule of law and relied on all its previous potential in terms of ideology and methodology. Among the most important of them, T. Bingham mentioned the Magna Carta, habeas corpus, the Petition of Right of 1628, the Bill of Rights of 1689, the Succession to the Throne Act of 1701, the US Constitution of 1787 and the American Bill of Rights of 1791, the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen of 1789, the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948, and a number of others. Each of these sources was the tip of the rule of law iceberg at the time of its appearance, and all of them together represent their system and convince us that the modern international concept of the rule of law is based on its Atlantic, primarily British, tradition. According to T. Bingham, the system of sources of the rule of law convinces that it cannot be introduced by directive, since it is the core of the legal culture of a given society. According to the authors of the article, the provision on the key sources of the rule of law is at the same time the greatest highlight and innovation of T. Bingham’s concept of the Rule of Law.

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