The Concept of the Principles of Law and Peculiarities of Their Formulation in Acts of Interpretation of Law
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Abstract
In the article the principles of law as elements of the normative legal reality are analyzed. On the basis of comparative methods, those of legal dogmatic and critical analysis, the peculiarities of consolidation of legal principles in acts of interpretation of law as secondary sources of law are discussed. The author discusses the conception of sources of law, gives an overview of various opinions of a number of authors as to the features identifying principles of law and the functions attributed to the principles in the legal process. The aspects of consolidation of principles of law in sources of law are revealed on the basis of the jurisprudence of the Constitutional Court and it is shown that the peculiarities of consolidation of legal principles in acts of interpretation of law (first of all, of the Constitution) are linked with the conception of legal principles formulated in the constitutional doctrine, and how this conception and its consolidation in acts of the ConstitutionalCourt are related to the recognition of these acts as independent sources of law.
As well as other elements of normative reality, after they acquire a corresponding legal form, legal principles can actually influence the behavior of social subjects, thus an effective realization of the normative influence of legal principles would be hard to imagine without the formal definition quality, which is one of the necessary features of elements of a legal system, on the grounds of which the legal system itself is defined. On the other hand, with respect to legal principles, the feature of formal definition has certain peculiarities.
Legal principles as undetermined behavior standards, which are of extreme abstract nature, are consolidated in the results of law-making process, i.e. in primary legal acts of normative nature as well as in secondary legal acts and explanatory documents. The content of legal principles does not have to be expressed in its final form in the texts of constitutions and other primary legal acts and can be developed in a varied manner in the process of application of law, thus new systematic links are revealed of the interpreted acts together with peculiarities of normative influence made by legal principles in different legal situations. The peculiarities of consolidation of legal principles in the legal text permits to attribute acts of interpretation of law to direct legal acts of equal value alongside with normative acts, while an analysis of their texts gives an opportunity to discern dynamic aspects of the legal content. The continually changing content of legal principles cannot objectively be identified only with the text of a primary source of law (i.e. with the letter of the legal act). Otherwise, law would be unable to perform one of its most important functions, i.e. to ensure the unity and harmony of social regulation. It is this function of law which determines that the content of legal principles as abstract and undetermined standards of behavior is consolidated in secondary acts of application and interpretation of law, which are decisions of normative nature by institutions of constitutional review and courts of general jurisdiction in which the conception of legal dynamism is both formulated and consolidated together with that of legal principles, which integrates the stability aspects of the former.
As well as other elements of normative reality, after they acquire a corresponding legal form, legal principles can actually influence the behavior of social subjects, thus an effective realization of the normative influence of legal principles would be hard to imagine without the formal definition quality, which is one of the necessary features of elements of a legal system, on the grounds of which the legal system itself is defined. On the other hand, with respect to legal principles, the feature of formal definition has certain peculiarities.
Legal principles as undetermined behavior standards, which are of extreme abstract nature, are consolidated in the results of law-making process, i.e. in primary legal acts of normative nature as well as in secondary legal acts and explanatory documents. The content of legal principles does not have to be expressed in its final form in the texts of constitutions and other primary legal acts and can be developed in a varied manner in the process of application of law, thus new systematic links are revealed of the interpreted acts together with peculiarities of normative influence made by legal principles in different legal situations. The peculiarities of consolidation of legal principles in the legal text permits to attribute acts of interpretation of law to direct legal acts of equal value alongside with normative acts, while an analysis of their texts gives an opportunity to discern dynamic aspects of the legal content. The continually changing content of legal principles cannot objectively be identified only with the text of a primary source of law (i.e. with the letter of the legal act). Otherwise, law would be unable to perform one of its most important functions, i.e. to ensure the unity and harmony of social regulation. It is this function of law which determines that the content of legal principles as abstract and undetermined standards of behavior is consolidated in secondary acts of application and interpretation of law, which are decisions of normative nature by institutions of constitutional review and courts of general jurisdiction in which the conception of legal dynamism is both formulated and consolidated together with that of legal principles, which integrates the stability aspects of the former.
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Please see Copyright and Licence Agreement for further details.
