General Principles Of Law

Timetable

Monday 12:00-13:30; room 4.18; starts on 07/03/2022

Collegium Iuridicum  Novum. Address: Al. Niepodległości 53, Poznań

Module aim (aims)

The lectures aim is to provide students with foundations in general principles of law as a basic category of legal systems.

Pre-requisites in terms of knowledge, skills and social competences (where relevant)

none

Syllabus

Week 1: The structure of legal systems and their elements: rules, principles, policies.
Week 2: Different concepts of principles of law.
Week 3: Constitutional principles and their role in law interpretation and application.
Week 4: The structure of law principles.
Week 5: Legal principles and legal values.
Week 6: The procedure of balancing in application of principles.
Week 7: The problem of validity of principles.
Week 8: Legal principles versus extra-legal principles.

Reading list

1. R. Alexy, A Theory of Constitutional Rights, trans. by J. Rivers, Oxford University Press, Oxford 2002.

2. R. Alexy, On The Structure of Legal Principles, “Ratio Juris” 2000, Vol. 13, No. 3, pp. 294-304.

3. M. Atienza, J. R. Manero, Permissions, Principles and Rights. A Paper on Statements Expressing Constitutional Liberties, “Ratio Juris” 1996, Vol. 9, No. 3, pp. 236-247.

4. H. Ávila, Theory of Legal Principles, trans. by J. Todeschini, Springer, Dordrecht 2007.

5. R. Dworkin, A Matter of Principle, Clarendon Press: Oxford 1986.

6. R. Dworkin, Taking Rights Seriously, Duckworth, London 1991.

7. R. Dworkin, The Model of Rules, 35 University of Chicago Law Review 14 (1967), in: J. Feinberg and H.Gross (eds.), Philosophy of Law, Wadsworth, Belmont, California 1980.

8. M. Kordela, Inter- and Extra-Legal Axiology, in: Axiology of Judicial Discretion. Theoretical and Practical Aspects, Studia Iuridica Lublinensia 2020, Vol. 29, No. 3, pp. 29-38.

9. M. Kordela, Principles of Law. An Axiological Perspective, “Humanitas Journal of European Studies” 2009, III, pp. 51-65.

10. M. Kordela, Validity and the General Principles of Law, in: J.-Y. Chérot, S. Cimamonti, L. Tranchant, J. Trémeau (eds.), Le Droit, Entre Autonomie et Ouverture. Mélanges en l´honneur de Jean-Louis Bergel, Bruylant, 2013, pp. 282-297.

11. L. Mengoni, Constitutional Law as Law by Principles, „Ars Interpretandi. Yearbook of Legal Hermeneutics” 1996, Vol. 1, pp. 111-128.

12. A. Peczenik, Prima-facie Values and the Law, in: Poznań Studies in the Philosophy of the Sciences and the Humanities 1991, Vol. 23, pp. 91-109.

13. A. Peczenik, Principles of Law: The Search for Legal Theory, Rechtstheorie, 2 (1971), pp. 17-35.

14. J. Raz, Legal Principles and the Limits of Law, in: Cohen M (ed.), Ronald Dworkin and Contemporary Jurisprudence, Duckworth, London 1984, pp. 73-87.

15. J. Waldron, The Need for Legal Principles, Iowa Law Review 1997, vol. 82, pp. 857-86