The legal virtue of reflexivity and the rule of law

Abstract

This paper explores reflexivity as a core legal virtue essential to sustaining the rule of law. Building on virtue ethics and jurisprudence, it argues that virtues in law are not merely personal traits but cognitive and institutional capacities necessary for the implementation of the rule of law. Reflexivity describes the form of legal knowledge that enables legal practitioners to connect the normative ideal of the rule of law with concrete legal actions, fostering awareness of how behaviours and decisions uphold or threaten the rule of law. Reflexivity also functions as a civic virtue, encouraging citizens to demand accountability, transparency, and participation in legal processes. Through this dual dimension—professional and civic—reflexivity could strengthen fidelity to the rule of law, ensuring that law remains a collective and self-critical enterprise dedicated to fairness and the limitation of arbitrariness.