While laws are positive “is” statements (e.g. the fine for reversing on a highway is €500); law tells us what we “should” do. Thus, each legal system can be hypothesised to have a basic norm instructing us to obey. Kelsen’s major opponent, Carl Schmitt, rejected both positivism and the idea of the rule of law because he did not accept the primacy of abstract normative principles over concrete political positions and decisions.
- The head of state is apart from the executive, and symbolically enacts laws and acts as representative of the nation.
- Socialist law is the legal systems in communist states such as the former Soviet Union and the People’s Republic of China.
- Another example is in the 19th-century English case of R v Dudley and Stephens, which tested a defence of “necessity”.
- This partly reflected Germany’s status as a rising power in the late 19th century.
As the European …
