DOMPVV_VPS Relations among legal systems (national, international, EU)

Faculty of Law
Spring 2025
Extent and Intensity
6/0/0. 4 credit(s). Type of Completion: z (credit).
Teacher(s)
prof. JUDr. Jiří Malenovský, CSc. (lecturer)
prof. JUDr. Vladimír Týč, CSc. (lecturer)
prof. JUDr. Filip Křepelka, Ph.D. (assistant)
doc. JUDr. David Sehnálek, Ph.D. (assistant)
Guaranteed by
prof. JUDr. Jiří Malenovský, CSc.
Course Enrolment Limitations
The course is also offered to the students of the fields other than those the course is directly associated with.
fields of study / plans the course is directly associated with
Course objectives
The emergence and existence of the legal order are based on an independent political power that determines the social values it protects and the vertical or horizontal stratification of these values within the legal order. Therefore, the relations between legal orders are inevitably characterised by their mutual independence, which excludes the possibility of a certain uniform intersystemic legal regulation (the so-called meta-law). In the absence of a meta-rule, the relevant legal order is always called upon to regulate its relations with other legal orders by unilateral regulation of its own norms. Such unilateral regulation introduces "order" into the coexistence of legal systems, i.e. harmony, judged from the point of view of the given regulating legal order, but at the same time disharmony, judged from the point of view of other legal orders which are subject to its unilateral normative regulation. The question of the relations between legal systems cannot, for the reason given, be treated in a general and unified manner, but always only through the lens of each of the legal systems concerned (international, national and integration [EU] law). This corresponds to the specific intersystemic regulations based on 1) international law; 2) national law; 3) integration [EU] law, which in the end requires three lessons in the teaching of the doctoral programme in question.
Learning outcomes
Upon completion of the course, the student will be able to:
understand the origins of conflicts between national, international and integration law,
apply the perspective of the different legal orders in their work.
Syllabus
  • Lesson 1: Intersystemic regulation under international law This regulation cannot be coherently discussed without a strict distinction between general international law (customary or codified) and particularized (treaty) international law. The former forms a "vault" over all unique systems (national law) or particularistic systems (integration law or Union law). General international law is therefore called upon to unilaterally direct the conduct of all other legal orders, and thus to disregard the legal nature of any one of them. A fundamental element of the international law regulation of intersystemic relations is thus the principle of exclusion (the inadmissibility of national law), which disregards the normative effects of systems of national and EU law. The treaty systems of particular international law may derogate from the intersystemic regulation of general international law (lex specialis derogat generali), e.g. by providing for the immediate effects of international treaties within states.
  • Lesson 2: Intersystemic regulation established by national law V the interest of unique systems of national law is to achieve harmony with systems of general and particular international law. In the contexts of the vertical system of national law, regulation is generally carried out in its top "tier", i.e., the constitution. The principle of incorporation (reception of general and/or particular international law) has become a fundamental element of constitutional regulation of intersystemic relations. This diversifies the effects of international law and its implementation, since specific intersystemic regulation inevitably differs in  individual unique national legal orders. This constitutional practice results in the fragmentation and destabilization of the effects of the international law principle of the inadmissibility of national law and, as a consequence, in the complete amputation of these effects in the constitutional plane of national law or, in the extreme case, even in the legislative plane (so-called treaty override).
  • Lesson 3: Intersystemic regulation under EU law Integration (Union) law represents a particularistic legal system which, on the one hand, in relation to unique national legal orders, appears as a common system to be unilaterally reciprocated by them, whereas, on the other hand, in terms of international law, it appears as a unique system which cannot be invoked in competition with the latter. The incorporation of EU law by the constitutions of some Member States results in its domestication, which has been described in the past in the doctrines of "so lange", "ultra vires" or "constitutional identity". These fundamentally clash with the fundamental principle of the primacy of EU law, as enshrined in EU law. In relation to international law, a distinction must be made between the mere autonomy of EU law in relation to general international law (which is therefore not reciprocated by EU law, but is applicable in that law without further application by virtue of the lex generalis title), and to articular international law, in relation to which EU law claims full independence, resulting in its unilateral incorporation (reception) under the conditions which EU law itself unilaterally lays down.
Teaching methods
Lecture, discussion.
Assessment methods
Essay or analysis on selected topic.
Language of instruction
Czech
Further Comments
The course is taught: in blocks.
The course is also listed under the following terms Spring 2024.
  • Enrolment Statistics (recent)
  • Permalink: https://is.muni.cz/course/law/spring2025/DOMPVV_VPS