<P> Finland's constitution explicitly requires rule of law by stipulating that "the exercise of public powers shall be based on an Act . In all public activity, the law shall be strictly observed ." </P> <P> In the United Kingdom the rule of law is a long - standing principle of the way the country is governed, dating from Magna Carta in 1215 and the Bill of Rights 1689 . In the 19th century, A.V. Dicey, a constitutional scholar and lawyer, wrote of the twin pillars of the British constitution in his classic work Introduction to the Study of the Law of the Constitution (1885); these two pillars are the rule of law and parliamentary sovereignty . </P> <P> All government officers of the United States, including the President, the Justices of the Supreme Court, state judges and legislators, and all members of Congress, pledge first and foremost to uphold the Constitution . These oaths affirm that the rule of law is superior to the rule of any human leader . At the same time, the federal government has considerable discretion: the legislative branch is free to decide what statutes it will write, as long as it stays within its enumerated powers and respects the constitutionally protected rights of individuals . Likewise, the judicial branch has a degree of judicial discretion, and the executive branch also has various discretionary powers including prosecutorial discretion . </P> <P> Scholars continue to debate whether the U.S. Constitution adopted a particular interpretation of the "rule of law", and if so, which one . For example, John Harrison asserts that the word "law" in the Constitution is simply defined as that which is legally binding, rather than being "defined by formal or substantive criteria", and therefore judges do not have discretion to decide that laws fail to satisfy such unwritten and vague criteria . Law Professor Frederick Mark Gedicks disagrees, writing that Cicero, Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, and the framers of the U.S. Constitution believed that an unjust law was not really a law at all . </P>

What does the constitution say about rule of law
find me the text answering this question