Eurooppalaistuvan oikeuden oikeusteoreettisia ongelmia

Abstract

The Europeanization of Law – Jurisprudential Problems The study’s point of departure is to use the evolution of EU Law as a huge societal experience providing us with insight that enables us to test the tenability of the basic theoretical constructions of analytical legal positivism. The thesis consists of a collection of articles and a summary. The summary forms, at an abstract legal-theoretical level, a rational reconstruction of the themes discussed in the articles. The summary updates the articles and provides a rational “legal-theoretical” reconstruction of the themes addressed in the articles. This reconstruction is based on an orthodox understanding of EU law as an autonomous legal order that is valid as applicable binding law in the Member States but retains its independent character as EU law and is not merged into national law. This entails that Europeanization leads to an asymmetric view of valid law: for national judges valid law is a combination of national and European law; for EU judges, valid law is only EU law. In the summary, the different interpretations that can be given to the concept of Europeanization of law are analysed on the basis of a conceptual framework that makes a distinction between propositional/behavioural and concrete/abstract aspects of law. The framework is inspired by J.W.Harris’s distinction between momentary and non-momentary legal systems and Kaarlo Tuori’s three-level model of law. This leads to a conceptual stipulation that distinguishes between the legal order (concrete/propositional), juridical practices (concrete/ behavioural), the legal system (abstract/propositional) and legal culture (abstract/behavioural.In the context of the legal order the issues discussed include the ultimate rules (Grundnorm,Rule of Recognition) that form the foundations of legal order and the representation of Europeanized law as contextual fields of consistent normative meaning based on both national and European sources. The discussion of the Europeanization of juridical practices addresses such questions as the penetration of European law into national legislation and adjudication. Concerning Europeanization of the legal system the discussion takes up such themes as conceptual divergence between EU law and national law, fragmentation of national law, the metaconstitutional paradox in the EU and the relation between European democracy and EU law.Finally, the chapter on legal culture proposes a hermeneutic understanding of the concept of legal of culture as unarticulated Vorverständniss, and links the discussion of the approximation of legal cultures in the EU to Aulis Aarnio’s theory of legal audiences.

Eurooppalaistuvan oikeuden oikeusteoreettisia ongelmia on väitöskirjatutkimus, jonka muodostavat yhdeksän artikkelia ja yhteenveto-osa. Artikkelit käsittelevät EU-oikeuden omaksumista Suomessa, EU:n perustuslaillistumisprosessia, demokratian ja perusoikeuksien suhdetta sekä EU-oikeuden käsitteenmuodostuksen ongelmia. Yhteenveto-osassa päivitetään artikkelien teemoja ja esitetään niiden rationaalinen rekonstruktio abstraktimmalla oikeusteoreettisella tasolla. Tässä nojaudutaan oikeuden nelikenttämalliin, jossa eurooppalaistumista tarkastellaan oikeusnormeista muodostuvan oikeusjärjestyksen, oikeuskäsitteistä ja periaatteista muodostuvan oikeusjärjestelmän, oikeudellisista käytännöistä muodostuvan juridiikan ja oikeudellisen toiminnan esitiedollisista lähtökohdista muodostuvan oikeuskulttuurin muutoksena.