Kultūra ir Europos Sąjungos teisė: sąsajų paieškos

Abstract

The correlation of the EU law and the culture are analysed in the article. The miscellaneous nature of the analysed subject-matter demonstrates the complexity of combining hardly compatible elements, namely, the culture and law, into a juridical structure, the latter lacking not only a clear centre but also a specific plan to establish the interrelation between the subjects.
The aim of the paper is to investigate the correlation of the culture and the EU law under theoretical and practical aspects. To achieve the aim, the following objectives were raised : a) to introduce the perspective of the culture and the EU law by revealing dominating problems and tendencies; b) to present the relation between the EU law and culture in the background of N. Luhmann's theory of autopoiesis; c) to review the scope of the culture as regulated in the Consolidated Version Of the Treaty On the European Union together with the judicial practice as a whole.
Observations on the nature of modern culture, as seen in the context of the EU legal and political goals, are presented in the introductory part. In the first part of the article, the analysis of the culture concept as a multidimensional element is given; in the second part, a short review of the EU law and culture under the autopoiesis or organized systems' theory, which particularly suits the purpose of revealing the analysis of coherence search, is presented. This theory enabled to analyse the culture in the European Union law in the context of systems, and to clarify the relationship of the EU law and the culture in the cases when there is a try to judicially define the system and the concept of culture in the EU law. In the third part, more consideration is given to the analysis of the EU legal base. Initially, the European Community underlined the priority of economic development, thus, there was no wonder that the question of culture was ignored. However, in the course of Community development, the significance of culture was growing until it became a new matter of interest of the EU in Maastricht. Consequently, the commentary on Article 151 of the Consolidated Version Of the Treaty On the European Union is distinguished in the paper. Alongside, cases pertinent to the presented theme are selected. In conclusion, the findings and the evaluation of the EU law and the culture interrelation are presented by taking into consideration the goals of law and the synthesis of law practices and culture.