The Role of the Legal Principles and the General Clauses in the Process of the Operative Interpretation of Law

Abstract

The  paper  presents  the  role  of  the  legal  principles  and  the general  clauses  in  the  process  of  the  so  called  operative interpretation  of  law,  being  the  part  of  the  process  of making  the  decision  of  implementation  of  law  and undertaken,  in  the  light  of  the  facts  of  the  case,  to  make this  decision.  The  are  two  main  aspects  of  the  role  of  both constructs  in  this  kind  of  interpretation.  The  first  one,  at the validation  phase  of  interpretation,  deals  with  the  way  the principle  or  clause  is  accepted  by  the  court  as  an  element of  the  base  for  decision.  The  second  one  touches  the  role of  principle  and  clause  in  the  whole  reconstruction  of  the implemented  norm,  changing  the  proportions  between  the impact  of  the  linguistic  and  systemic  rules  of  interpretation, giving  way  to  axiologically  determined  teleological  and functional  directives.  The  latter  appear  at  the  beginning  of the  interpretative  process  and  influence the  contents  of  the norm  and  then  the  judicial  decision  in  a prevalent  scale.