.. any policy aiming directly at a substantive ideal of distributive justice must lead to the destruction of the Rule of Law. To produce the same result for different people, it is necessary to treat them differently. To give different people the same objective opportunities is not to give them the same subjective chance.  It cannot be denied that the Rule of Law produces economic inequality-  all that can be claimed for it is that this inequality is not designed to affect particular people in a particular way.

It may even be said that for the Rule of Law to be effective it is more important that there should be a rule applied always without exception than what this rule is.  Often the content of the rule is indeed of minor importance; provided the same rule is universally enforced.

from The Road to Serfdom by F. A. Hayek

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