Last November, as part of Rule of Law Week, students from the UNamur School of Law visited middle school students in grades 7 and 8. Their goal: to discuss the key principles of the rule of law and democracy in an era of AI and the rise of authoritarian tendencies.
The rule of law, which is increasingly under threat around the world, is a concept whose core principles and nuances are often misunderstood. That is why the High Council of Justice organizes Rule of Law Week every November, during which law students visit high schools to introduce young people to this concept and invite them to engage in “a critical but informed dialogue.”
“As part of the practical component of their final-year projects, third-year students who opted for service-learning developed a two-hour workshop for 10th and 11th graders,” ” explains Alix Gobert, a teaching assistant at the UNamur Law School. They then visited social studies, history, economics, and geography classes at several schools in Namur in groups of four. “This initiative allowed them to interact with students who are a bit younger but still within their age group,” comments Olga Thiry, also an assistant at UNamur. “It’s therefore a genuine dialogue among young people about hot-button current events.”
Some student groups took into account their audience’s extensive familiarity with social media and AI, and chose to focus on this aspect. In particular, they addressed several recent news stories, such as the AI-generated videos produced by Fidesz. In one of them, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s party shows Péter Magyar, his main opponent, announcing (something he never actually did) his intention to cut pensions… “This kind of example immediately resonates with young people who are very familiar with these technologies,” comments Alix Gobert. “It also allowed us to address the issue of pluralism and how young people get their information. It turns out that, even if they don’t always know how to navigate it, they are well aware that getting information solely from social media isn’t enough.” For the students, this exercise was also a way to automatically distance themselves from AI. “With generative AI, doing homework at home makes less and less sense…,” comments Alix Gobert. “There’s always a bit of suspicion… This kind of work, however, allows us to assess students’ oral fluency and explore alternative approaches. And I must say I’ve rarely seen my students so motivated… ” Giving students the opportunity to introduce other young people to a concept as crucial as the rule of law is, ultimately, according to Olga Thiry, a way to combine “rigorous teaching” with “meaningful” academic work.
The rule of law enshrines legal rules as instruments for regulating political and social organization. It constitutes the legal framework of democracies. It stands in contrast to two other types of state: the police state and the legal state. In a police state, the law is drafted and enforced by the state itself: the government exercises its power in an authoritarian and arbitrary manner, without legal oversight, as in the totalitarian regimes of the Third Reich and the USSR. In a legal state, the state is subject to laws passed by a parliament that recognizes no authority above itself: the legislature drafts laws without any hindrance, as was the case in France under the Third Republic. In a state governed by the rule of law, political power is subject to a hierarchical system of legal rules, which requires adherence to three major principles: the hierarchy of norms, equality before the law, and the separation of powers.
This hierarchy of legal rules (constitution, laws, decrees, etc.) makes it possible to determine which higher-level rules must be observed by lower-level rules, thereby preventing numerous conflicts between legal norms that, without this hierarchy, would compete with or contradict one another. Compliance with the hierarchy of norms is ensured by numerous courts, including the Council of State, the Constitutional Court, and the courts and tribunals.
Equality before the law means that the law applies equally to all legal entities, including natural persons (individuals) and legal persons (organizations). The state itself is considered a legal person, and its decisions are subject to the principle of legality.
The separation of powers stands in contrast to absolute monarchy, where all powers were exercised by the monarch. It recognizes three branches of government (legislative, executive, and judicial), each exercised by distinct bodies that are independent of one another. Legislative power is exercised by Parliament, executive power is held by the head of state and members of the government, and judicial power is vested in the courts.
Since 2002, the High Council of Justice has conducted an opinion poll to gauge the Belgian public’s perceptions and views on the justice system, with the aim of implementing initiatives to improve its functioning. The findings are grim: since 2010, public confidence in the justice system has fallen steadily, dropping from 66% in 2007 to 54% in 2024. The justice system thus scores lower than education and the police (eight out of ten Belgians trust them), but its score is better than that of the press, Parliament, the government, and religious institutions (which only four to five out of ten Belgians trust today). More than a third of Belgians thus believe, in 2024, that the functioning of the justice system has deteriorated. Six out of ten Belgians also believe that the judicial system does not communicate sufficiently about how it operates. The justice system is also perceived as inaccessible: six out of ten Belgians believe that access to justice is unaffordable and that legal language is not clear enough.
This article is taken from the "Tomorrow Learn" section of Omalius magazine, Issue #40 (April 2026).
