On Precedents in General and in a Statutory Legal System

Alexander Bröstl

Abstract


The article touches upon the issue of precedent (in both the codified law and common law systems) as a source of law. The author presents concepts of the law philosophers, often contradictory to one another, which refer to the understanding of the very term ‘source of law’. The possibility of qualifying judicial rulings, including precedents, as a source of law, is also examined. The author compares the functioning of precedents (quasi-precedents) in legal systems of a number of countries (including the USA, England, Slovakia, Poland, Germany, and Sweden), with special emphasis on Slovakia. It is also emphasised that the rulings of the Constitutional Tribunal of the Slovak Republic have a binding power for courts, provided they are petitioners of the proceedings. The Supreme Court rulings have two kinds of a binding power. The first of them is a cassation power (in a case being the subject of the proceedings), and the second one is a precedential binding power, which is characterised by the lack of obligation of being applied by common courts.


Keywords


precedent; quasi-precedent; source of law

Full Text:

PDF

References


Alexy R., Theorie der Grundrechte, Baden-Baden 1994.

Austin J., Lectures on Jurisprudence or the Philosophy of Positive Law, New York 1875.

Austin J., On the Study of Jurisprudence, [in:] The Province of Jurisprudence Determined, Indianopolis–Cambridge 1998.

Austin J., The Province of Jurisprudence Determined, Indianopolis–Cambridge 1998.

Bobbio N., Consuetudine e fatto normativo, [in:] Contributi ad un dizionario guiridico, Turin 1994.

Bröstl A., On Legal Doctrine and Some Rechtsstaat-Principles, [in:] Rule of Law. Collection of Papers, ed. A. Bröstl, Košice 1996.

Bulygin E., Judicial Decisions and the Creation of Law, [in:] Essays in Legal Philosophy, eds. C. Bernal, C. Huerta, T. Mazzarese, J.J. Moreso, S. Paulson, Oxford 2015.

Cardozo B.N., The Nature of the Judicial Process, New Haven–London 1921.

Dąbrowski M., Źródła prawa powszechnie obowiązującego w Konstytucji z 1997 r. – katalog zamknięty czy otwarty?, „Studia Prawnoustrojowe” 2004, nr 3.

Drgonec J., Súdna tvorba práva ako prostriedok uplatnenia zákona, zabezpečenia spravodlivosti a právnej istoty (Judicial Law-Making as a Means of Application of a Statute, Securing Justice, and Legal Security), „Justičná revue“ 2008, Vol. 60.

Dworkin R., Law’s Empire, Cambridge 1986.

Engisch K., Einführung in das juristische Denken, Stuttgart–Berlin–Köln 1989.

Grabowski A., Juristic Concept of the Validity of Statutory Law: A Critique of Contemporary Nonpositivism, Heidelberg–Berlin 2013, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27688-0.

Hübner H., Allgemeiner Teil des Bürgerlichen Gesetzbuches, Berlin–New York 1996.

Kelsen H., Reine Rechtslehre, Wien 1960.

Ľalík T., O sudcovskej tvorbe práva (On the Judge Law-Making), „Justičná revue“ 2014, No. 1.

Larenz K., Methodenlehre der Rechtswissenschaft, Berlin 1991, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-08711-4.

Morawski L., Wstęp do prawoznawstwa, Toruń 1998.

Pattaro E., Temi e problemi di filosofia de diritto, Bolona 1994.

Pattaro E., The Law and the Right, [in:] A Treatise of Legal Philosophy and General Jurisprudence, Vol. 1, Dordrecht 2005.

Paulus, Digesta, 50, 17,1.

Payandeh M., Judikative Rechtserzeugung: Theorie, Dogmatik und Methodik der Wirkungen der Präjudizen, Tübingen 2017.

Peczenik A., The Ways of Legal Certainty, [in:] Rule of Law. Collection of Papers, ed. A. Bröstl, Košice 1996.

Procházka R.,Káčer M., Teória práva, Bratislava 2013.

Raz J., The Authority of Law, Oxford 1998.

Resolution of the Regional Court in Banská Bystrica, No. 17 Co 410/2014 /of 14 May 2014.

Rüthers B., Rechtstheorie, München 2011.

Rüthers B., Fischer Ch., Birk A., Rechtstheorie mit juristischer Methodenlehre, München 2011.

Ross A., Theorie der Rechtsquellen. Ein Beitrag zur Theorie des positiven Rechts auf Grundlage dogmenhistorischer Untersuchungen. Kap. XII. Der Begriff der Rechtsquelle, Aalen 1989.

Rotolo A., Sources of Law in the Civil Law, [in:] A Treatise of Legal Philosophy and General Jurisprudence, Vol. 3, Dordrecht 2005, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/1-4020-3505-5_30.

Schauer F., Authority and Authorities, “Virginia Law Review” 2008, No. 94.

Shiner R.A., Legal Institutions and the Sources of Law, [in:] A Treatise of Legal Philosophy and General Jurisprudence, Vol. 3, Dordrecht 2005.

Schönberger Ch., Höchstrichterliche Rechtsfindung und Auslegung gerichtlicher Entscheidungen, „Veröffentlichungen der Vereinigung der Deutschen Staatsrechtslehrer“ 2012, Bd. 71.

Siltala R., A Theory of Precedent: From Analytical Positivism to a Post-Analytical Philosophy of Law, Oxford–Portland 2000.

Toth-Vaňo P., On the Precedential Binding Force of the Judicial Decision (Also According to the Civil Dispute Order). O precedentnej záväznosti súdneho rozhodnutia (aj podľa Civilného sporového poriadku), „Justičná revue“ 2016, No. 68.

Urofsky M.I., William O. Douglas a Common Law Judge, “Duke Law Journal” 1991, Vol. 41, DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/1372702.

Wróblewski J., The Judicial Application of Law, Dordrecht–Boston 1992, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-8050-2.




DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.17951/sil.2018.27.1.177
Date of publication: 2018-05-02 07:55:30
Date of submission: 2018-02-12 22:27:04


Statistics


Total abstract view - 1250
Downloads (from 2020-06-17) - PDF - 0

Indicators



Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.


Copyright (c) 2018

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.