Original scientific paper
THE AUTHORITARIAN LEGAL CULTURE AT WORK: THE PASSIVITY OF PARTIES AND THE INTERPRETATIONAL STATEMENTS OF SUPREME COURTS
Zdeněk Kühn
Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to show that several rarely
discussed features of the legal culture in Central and Eastern Europe
distinguish this region from its Western counterpart. First, there is the
misunderstanding of the classical Continental principle of Iura novit
curia, the maxim which tells us that it is the judge who knows the law.
While the activity of parties and their close collaboration in discussing
issues of law with the judge is an important engine in applying European
law in the old EU of 15, the parties are often viewed as passive
objects in post-Communist litigation. Second, there is the specifi c idea
of interpretational statements issued by post-Communist supreme
courts irrespective of any real-life pending case. My thesis is that both
these phenomena have a concrete philosophical and historical underpinning
which constitutes one of the deep differences between the
conception of law in Europe’s East and Europe’s West.
Keywords
Hrčak ID:
28514
URI
Publication date:
3.11.2006.
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