http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rechtsstaat

Valery Zorkin, President of the Constitutional Court of Russia, wrote in 2003:

Becoming a legal state has long been our ultimate goal, and we have certainly made serious progress in this direction over the past several years. However, no one can say now that we have reached this destination. Such a legal state simply cannot exist without a lawful and just society. Here, as in no other sphere of our life, the state reflects the level of maturity reached by society.[6]