Who defines and enforces "rule of law" and "human rights"? These people are the rulers then. When some "majority" or "president" decides that "X is a basic human right", then suddenly everyone who produces and sells X must sell it for government-imposed prices. Or has to go to jail.
It would probably be cool if we figured out all basic human rights once and for all and had the written laws enforce themselves without human supervision. But the reality is that people are doing harm to people, not papers. And people decide when this harm is justified and when it's not.
> "X is a basic human right", then suddenly everyone who produces and sells X must sell it for government-imposed prices. Or has to go to jail.
This is nonsense. The ECHR is enforceable against states only (it's a treaty, after all - its signatories are states, not individuals). Non-state entities can't be sued, let alone prosecuted, for violating it - they're not bound by it.
It contains a list of rights and restrictions that states must comply in their three capacities (when taking executive actions, making laws, and ruling on cases). The rights are things like 'right not to be tortured' and 'right to free expression', not 'right to buy milk for 50p'.
(Ironically, if a state did decide to price-fix some basic substance, they're then in danger of running afoul of a different set of international laws: EU free trade regulations).
It would probably be cool if we figured out all basic human rights once and for all and had the written laws enforce themselves without human supervision. But the reality is that people are doing harm to people, not papers. And people decide when this harm is justified and when it's not.