b) The law as a systematised body of norms

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b) The law as a systematised body of norms

norm rules and principles legal right sources of law hierarchy of sources complex arrangement of international law key imperative of the legal dimension

Prescription

Every norm prescribes a rule of conduct (action). Therefore, the norm is a founder of the standards accordingly either of right and wrong (e.g. rules of the game), good and evil (moral) or lawful and unlawful (law).

Ordinary rules or principles

Legal norms appear in the form of either ordinary rules or principles.54 Both legal rules and legal principles are legal norms because they both suggest what ought to be in legal terms. Nevertheless, there is a difference between legal rules and principles:

• In the case of legal principle, a norm has a general nature and represents a generalised standard (perspective) for an undetermined number of cases that imply the application of the general norm. In addition, a legal principle also provides guidance for the interpretation or application of a legal rule. • On the other hand, in respect of legal rule, the norm of conduct is applicable only in well-predetermined circumstances and refers to only particular legal relationships (case).

Legal right

There is no legal right without the law. The legal norms determine rights and obligations. Every right includes the obligation (of another person/persons) in itself.

54 In international law, this distinction has become conventional. The formulation ‘rules and principles of international law’ is emphasised in many international documents and in the approaches of the

International Court of Justice as well. See the Court’s Advisory Opinion on Legal Consequences of the

Construction of a Wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territory of 9 July 2004 (ICJ Reports 2004, 136), for example, Paragraph 114. All ICJ cases are available at < www.icj-cij.org/en/list-of-all-cases >.

Addressees of legal norms

Mostly, legal norms represent the rule of conduct (1) for an unlimited number of persons and (2) for multiple applications. However, legal norms do not always appear to have such a nature – for example, the norms established by an ‘individual legal act’, which are intended for one-time application55 and the norms defned by the bilateral international treaty, which are valid only for the parties to the treaty concerned.

Sources of law

Legal norms are presented in pre-defned formats (forms), which are named the ‘ sources of law’.

In formal terms, the sources of law are the forms which can be perceived by the human senses and which take shape either as a binding custom (e.g. international custom) or in any other legal format – such as laws, edicts, decrees, rescripts, orders, ordinances, statutes, resolutions, rules, judicial decisions, and the list can be continued further.

Systematised body of norms

Sources and norms of law are ordered in the system of:

• Hierarchy (in national law) • Complex arrangement (in international law)

First, the complex arrangement of international law concerns the sources of law and ref ects the framework where all of them are placed at the same level without normative hierarchy. However, there are other ordering models in relation to the legal norms of international law regardless of the forms (sources of law) in which they are allocated. These models manage the priority and validity matters in the non-hierarchical system of sources of law. The peremptory and dispositive norms in international law represent one such model. A more detailed description of the complex arrangement system will be provided later in this book.

A key imperative of the legal dimension

Meanwhile, for the legal approach, the principal objective is the implementation of the norms holding legal validity. ‘Legal norms are to be kept’ – this is the key imperative of the legal dimension: that is to say, a self-suff cient imperative.

At the same time, as suggested earlier, determination of the legal validity per se depends on the legal approach one supports. Accordingly, the positivists f nd validity to be located in an objectively verifable source; the followers of the law of nature approach in the compliance of a norm with requirements of the (substantive or procedural) law of nature; the

55 For instance, Article 2 (Concept and types of legal acts) of the Law of Georgia on Normative Acts.