On the status of judicial jurisprudence as a source of law

Abstract

The present study examines if case law should be considered a source of law in the Civil-law-context of Bulgarian legal system. For these purpose two approaches are compared − the traditional normativism based on the European legal dogmatics and the legal realism. The normative approach denies the status of legal source to case law, pointing to the lack of written legal rule that makes the observance of previous decisions mandatory for the courts. The second approach − that of legal realism, is practically unknown in Bulgaria. Legal realists, including the authors of this school presented here − Alf Ross and Karl Olivecrona, criticize the traditional approach, arguing that as a science, law must examine certain facts, and the very “facts” that can be somehow connected to the law are the judicial decisions.

In order to compare these two approaches, I analyze both the different opinions on the issue in Bulgaria and the relationship between lawmaking and law enforcement. I try to show that the very nature of the law to regulate through general prescriptions, expressed in linguistic form, requires from the courts to specify the statutory norms in a more detailed way, developing and completing their meaning in their acts.

The traditional understanding that there is no legal basis for the mandatory observance of case law by courts is rejected by the demonstration of a thesis on the existence of such an obligation, which can be deduced from individual provisions of the Bulgarian Constitution and the Judiciary Act, and from the principle of the legal state.

References:

Vasilev, Lyuben. Grazhdansko pravo. Obshta chast. [1956]. Nova redaktsia na Ch. Goleminov. Varna, 1993.

Valchev, Daniel. Lektsii po Obshta teoria na pravoto. Ch. 1. Sofia: Siela, 2016.

Ganev, Venelin. Izvori na pravoto, talkuvanie i prilozhenie. Yuridicheski arhiv, 1934, god. V, kn. 3.

Gotsev, Vasil. Dogovorna i deliktna otgovornost – sravnenie i konkurentsia. Sofia: Nauka i izkustvo, 1979.

Groysman, Simeon. Pravo i vlast. Ot neogranichenata darzhava do postmodernoto varhovenstvo na pravata. VI. Osnovnata norma kato proektsia na vlastnicheski otnoshenia. § 26. Osnovite na Kelzenovata teoria. Sofia: Siela, 2020.

Groysman, Simeon. Pravo i moral. § 73. Praviloto za razpoznavane kato sotsialna konventsia: usavarshenstvaneto na teoriyata na Hart ot Kolman i Marmor. Sofia: Siela, 2017.

Dzherov, Aleksandar. Grazhdansko pravo. Obshta chast. 3. prerab. i dop. izd. Sofia: Trud i pravo, 2012.

Dikov, Lyuben. Kurs po balgarsko grazhdansko pravo. T. I. Obshta chast. Sofia: Pech. P. K. Ovcharov, 1940.

Kolev, Tencho. Teoria na pravoto. Sofia: Siela, 2015.

Kurant, Rihard, Robbins, Gerbert. Chto takoe matematika? Эlementarnыy ocherk idey i metodov. Per. s angl. pod red. A. N. Kolmogorova. Moskva: MTsNMO, 2000 [1947].

Pavlova, Maria. Grazhdansko pravo. Obshta chast. Sofia: Sofi-R, 2002.

Rachev, Filip. Grazhdansko pravo. Sofia: Univ. izd. Stopanstvo, 2003.

Ruschev, Ivan. Normativnite aktove – iztochnik na chastnoto pravo. Sofia: Albatros, 2008.

Stalev, Zhivko. Normativnata sila na fakticheskoto. Sofia: Univ. izd. „Sv. Kl. Ohridski“, 1997.

Tadzher, Vitali. Grazhdansko pravo na NRB. Obshta chast. D. I, Sofia: Nauka i izkustvo, 1972.

Tashev, Rosen. Kam ponyatieto za praven printsip. – Savremenno pravo, 2001, № 6.

Tashev, Rosen. Obshta teoria na pravoto: Osnovni pravni ponyatia, 4. prerab. i dop. izd., Sofia: Sibi, 2010, s. 114.

Fadenheht, Yosif. Balgarsko grazhdansko pravo. Obshta chast. Otdel I: Obektivno pravo. Sofia: Pech. na Armeyskia voenno-izdatelski fond, 1929.

Dworkin, Ronald. Justice for Hedgehogs. The Belknap Press, 2011.

Hart, Herbert. The Concept of Law. 2nd ed. (With a Postscript edited by Penelope A. Bulloch and Joseph Raz). New York: Oxford University Press, 1994.

Kelsen, Hans. Reine Rechtslehre, Studienausgabe der 2. Aufl age 1960, unter Berücksichtigung von Kelsens Änderungen anlässlich der Übersetzung ins Italianische 1966, herausgegeben und eingeleitet von Matthias Jestaedt. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck; Wien: Verlag Össterreich, 2017.

Kelsen, Hans. Über Grenzen zwischen juristischer und soziologischer Methode: Vortrag gehalten in der Soziologischen Gesellchaft zu Wien. Tübingen: J.C.B. Mohr, 1911.

Matthiessen, Christian, Teruya, Kazuhiro, Lam, Marvin. Key Terms in Systemic Functional Linguistics, Continuum, 2010.

Olivecrona, Karl. Law as Fact. Copenhagen: Einar Munksgaard; London: Humphrey Milford, 1939. Reprinted: London, Wildy & Sons, 1962.

Paton, George Whitecross. A Text-book of Jurisprudence. Third ed., edited by D. P. Derham. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1964.

Rada, Ray. Hypertext: from Text to Expertext, ch. 3, Online access: https://userpages.umbc.edu/~rada/cv/pubs/hypertextbook/

Rüthers, Bernd, Fischer, Christian, Birk, Axel. Rechtstheorie mit juristischer Methodenlehre, 10. überarbeitete Aufl age, München: C. H. Beck, 2018.