The Principles in the Civil Law Systems and Handbooks

Abstract

The works mentioned in the title present two concepts of the ‘principles of law’ (the civil law). According to the first one, the principles of the civil law are legal norms of particular significance in this field of law; whereas the latter sees the principles of civil law as the fundamental assumptions and guiding ideas of this branch of law. This difference in the understanding of the principles – fundamental as it may seem – does not, actually, affect in any significant or real way the role that particular authors attribute to principles in the process of making, and particularly applying civil law; the principles indicate the proper manner of interpreting legal regulations which is in accordance with the aims and values they express. Moreover, the principles of the civil law, along with the civil method of regulation, create a synthetic image of the aims and values of this branch of law.