The Rule of Law as a British Value: What Schools Teach

The rule of law is one of the four "fundamental British values" that schools in England are expected to promote. Departmental advice published by the Department for Education on 27 November 2014 says that schools should promote "the fundamental British values of democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty, and mutual respect and tolerance of those with different faiths and beliefs".

In the classroom, the rule of law usually means teaching pupils why laws exist, how they are made, that they apply to everyone and that they are enforced by independent courts.

Where the "British values" come from

The 2014 advice is titled Promoting fundamental British values as part of SMSC in schools. SMSC stands for pupils' spiritual, moral, social and cultural development. The advice is non-statutory and is aimed at maintained schools in England, in particular headteachers, staff responsible for the curriculum and governing bodies.

It links the values to a legal duty that already existed. Section 78 of the Education Act 2002 requires maintained schools, as part of a broad and balanced curriculum, to promote the spiritual, moral, cultural, mental and physical development of pupils and of society. The advice explains how schools can show they are actively promoting fundamental British values through that general requirement.

The advice cites the Prevent strategy of 2011, the government's counter-extremism strategy, as the source of the definition. It also notes that the Teachers' Standards expect teachers not to undermine fundamental British values. The precise wording of the values has varied a little between documents. A 2018 counter-terrorism strategy, for example, refers to "mutual respect, tolerance and understanding of different faiths and beliefs".

The four values

Value	Example of what pupils are expected to understand
Democracy	How citizens can influence decision-making through the democratic process
The rule of law	That living under the rule of law protects individual citizens and is essential for their wellbeing and safety
Individual liberty	That the freedom to choose and hold other faiths and beliefs is protected in law
Mutual respect and tolerance of those with different faiths and beliefs	That people with different faiths or beliefs, or none, should be accepted and tolerated and should not be the cause of prejudicial or discriminatory behaviour

What the guidance says about the rule of law

Several parts of the 2014 advice deal directly with law. It says that pupils should understand that while different people may hold different views about what is right and wrong, all people living in England are subject to its law. Schools' ethos and teaching should support the rule of English civil and criminal law, and schools should not teach anything that undermines it.

Where schools teach about religious law, the advice says particular care should be taken to explore the relationship between state and religious law, and pupils should be made aware of the difference between the law of the land and religious law.

Among the things schools should do through SMSC, the advice lists enabling pupils to distinguish right from wrong and to respect the civil and criminal law of England, and encouraging respect for democracy, "including respect for the basis on which the law is made and applied in England".

The expected understanding also includes the separation of powers: pupils should understand that there is a separation of power between the executive and the judiciary, and that while some public bodies, such as the police and the army, can be held to account through Parliament, others, such as the courts, maintain independence. Our guide to the separation of powers explains that idea in more detail.

What teaching the rule of law looks like

The advice gives examples of actions a school can take, while stressing that the list is not exhaustive. They include:

• teaching, at a level suited to pupils' age, the strengths, advantages and disadvantages of democracy, and how democracy and the law work in Britain compared with other forms of government;
• giving every pupil a voice, for example through a school council elected by pupils;
• holding mock elections around general or local elections, so pupils learn to argue and defend a point of view;
• using teaching resources from a wide variety of sources to help pupils understand a range of faiths;
• using extra-curricular activities, including those run by pupils, to promote the values.

A lesson on the rule of law might cover why rules are needed, how a bill becomes law, the role of the police and courts, the right to a fair trial and the idea that no one, including the government, is above the law. The legal background is covered in our guide to what is the rule of law, including the reference to "the existing constitutional principle of the rule of law" in section 1 of the Constitutional Reform Act 2005.

The advice also sets limits. It says schools and individuals do not have to "promote" teachings, beliefs or opinions that conflict with their own, but that it is not acceptable for schools to promote discrimination against people or groups on the basis of their belief, opinion or background. On inspection, it notes that Ofsted inspectors must consider pupils' SMSC development when judging a school, and directs schools to Ofsted's own framework for how this is assessed.

The debate about the term

The values themselves are written in broad terms, and much of the argument has been about the label and the policy context in which they were introduced.

• Why "British"? The label draws on a long-running argument about what Britishness means. The Commission for Racial Equality, for example, suggested that some people in Scotland, Wales and Ireland, and some ethnic minority Britons, may feel distant from the idea of Britishness, and the historian David Starkey argued that Britishness cannot be taught at all.
• The link with counter-extremism. The definition of the values was first set out in the government's Prevent strategy, so part of the debate is whether citizenship teaching should be connected with counter-extremism policy at all. Some teachers' organisations have questioned the link and argued that international human rights principles would be a clearer framework.
• The case for the values. Supporters answer that the values describe principles most people already share and that teaching them prepares young people for life in a diverse society. The advice itself presents them as part of pupils' wider spiritual, moral, social and cultural development, and says that actively promoting them means challenging opinions or behaviour in school that are contrary to them.