The Principle of Juridical Certainty and the Discontinuity of Law
| Author | María Elena Lauroba Lacasa |
| Position | Professor, Secretary General, University of Barcelona |
| Pages | 1241-1243 |
Page 1241
This is an abstract from El principio de seguridad jurdica y la discontinuidad del derecho. The authenticity of this article was ascertained only by the author.
Professor, Secretary General, University of Barcelona.
Juridical certainty is shaped as an explicit concept in the 1978 Spanish Constitution (SC). The preamble refers to it as the guiding principle of the entire legal order, a fundamental legal instrument for achieving the higher values of the system, and even an intermediate value that is to be followed in order to guarantee the consistency of the legal system.
Juridical certainty is a sum of certainty and legality, hierarchy and normative publicity, interdiction of the arbitrary, and absence of the Page 1242 retroactivity of the less favorable. The sum of these principles allows it to freely promote justice and equity.
Lawmakers must establish the time during which a law is in force, starting with the moment that the law comes into effect and the moment it loses its effects. Thus, this section analyses art. 2 CC, which sets the chronology of the norms and describes the problems that cause a bad technical regulation.
Art. 2.1 CC: "A law comes into effect twenty days after its complete publication in the Official Gazette, if the norm itself does not stipulate otherwise."
There are several mechanisms that cause a norm to lose its effect. These are: abolition, as the main technique; nullity, in direct relation with its being declared unconstitutional; loss of validity; and suspension.
The next question is how to set the succession of the norms, and exactly what law needs to be applied, in order to avoid conflicts between repealed and repealing laws. The answer is found in art. 2.3 CC...
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