Understanding and Types of General Principles of Law

What is it about?

General principles of law are the source of law within the legal arrangement of those states that are democratic and based on the Rule of Law. One can recognize the general principle of law if it is a natural right (e.g., right to life), a legal method (e.g., interpretation), or a system principle (e.g., separation of power). On the one hand, it is a legislator who has to find and write down the legal norms to regulate the life of the people, but the legislator is limited in adopting the legal norms with the content set by the type of legal arrangement – Basic Norm – democratic state based on the Rule of Law. Thus, on the other hand in case the legislator makes a mistake, the duty of the applier of legal norms according to the principle of separation of power and principle of prohibition of legal obstruction is to correct the written legal norm with the help of the relevant legal methods as all written legal norms are subordinate to the general principles of law derived directly from the Basic Norm. Thus, general principles of law are unwritten legal norms, while normative legal acts are written legal norms or the written part of legal norms. General principles of law are generally binding as of their nature and consist of legal content and legal consequences, respectively, they are valid for direct application and create subjective rights or impose legal obligations on a specific subject. Thereby, general principles of law are in no way different from (written) legal norms: the generally binding instructions of the legal arrangement of a democratic state governed by the Rule of Law may be expressed in two ways – they can be either written (positivized) legal norms or unwritten legal norms – general principles of law.

Featured Image

Photo by Chris Brignola on Unsplash

Photo by Chris Brignola on Unsplash

Why is it important?

Although the issue of general principles of law has been topical and much discussed among legal researchers and practitioners for decades, it is still far from a common and unified understanding of this phenomenon. This chapter clearly defines the general principle of law as a legal norm that exists in the legal arrangement before the legislature and sets the limitation of the legislator’s work.

Perspectives