We seem to live in a wonderful world. Or so it seems, that is, when one considers that States all over the world unhesitatingly subscribe to numerous conventions and declarations reflecting near universal consensus to the effect of forbidding such things as slavery, discrimination against women, child labour, or persecution based on religion or race. And of course everyone is entitled to impartial and transparent justice. Now the rule of law may not create rights, but what are rights without the rule of law? And so every state proclaims itself un Estado de derecho – which happens to be just how Alberto Fujimori had the nerve to describe Peru under his rule.This vision is an illusion. Worse, it is a fraud. To refer to it as unrealistic idealism would be to let ourselves off too easily, in effect claiming for ourselves good intentions. The fact is that we may be participating – at least negligently, and perhaps complicitly – in what I am tempted to call the Fraudulent Consensus on the Rule of Law.