Chapter 4 argues that to think clearly and well about the rule of law idea and ideal we should begin by asking what we want it for and what we want from it, not by attempting first to define its specific components and then wondering what we might do with them. Only if we come to some view of what we are after can we be in a position to explore possible and available ways of getting there. At this point, the role(s) that law might play, the forms it needs to assume, the institutions that would best serve, what else besides law and institutions would be needed, are all in principle open questions, as is the relative salience of whatever particular measures and institutions we light upon – not completely open, because this is not the rule of law’s first rodeo, but open enough. Since the world does not always present even the same sorts of problems in the same sorts of ways, different ways require different responses and there are new problems.