La idea del estado de derecho: su surgimiento, evolución y actualidad

Very generally speaking, we can define estado de derecho (which has not an english translation) as a system in which formal limits to the exercise of the power in a certain territory are defined. This concept emerges explicitly in Germany at the beginning of the Nineteenth century, and spreads then in most of the West. Nevertheless, we can detect in it a requirement that already had appeared at the beginning of the Modern Age, when the characteristic centralization of absolutism (or rather of those State which interpret themselves as absolutist) replaced the centrifugal system of feudalism. Thus, the ideas of estado de derecho and absolutist state essentially emerge at once. However, the overcoming of absolutism implies an evolution of the estado de derecho, which takes different forms in Germany, France, and United States (where actually the Anglo-Saxon concept of rule of law is utilized). Therefore, the Twentieth century saw the birth of constitutional estados de Derecho, where citizens' rights are often thoroughly mentioned in written documents. And then, do the differences among the various Western constitutions allow us to develop nowadays a concept, which does not yet remain too general?