Is the general theory of law a science of essentializing?

• Author: Nitoiu Roberta
• Pages: 190-196

IS THE GENERAL THEORY OF LAW A SCIENCE OF ESSENTIALIZING?

Ph. D. Associate Professor Roberta Niţoiu

Abstract: This paper work tries to answer the question if Is the General Theory of Law a

science of essentialzing? The General Theory of Law studies concepts, categories, principles and

basic notions regarding law. The curricula of the profiled faculties constantly places the discipline

General Theory of Law in the I-st year of study, for the last 60 years, starting from the premise that,

indeed, a glance upon the whole perspective of the juridical science' system and of the branch

disciplines that students have to go through is needed, even if there were voices saying that its place

would be more adequate in the last year of study when such disciplines are already studied and

assimilated.

Key words: General theory of law, law concepts, law theories, principles.

The curricula of the profiled faculties constantly places the discipline General Theory of

Law in the I-st year of study, for the last 60 years, starting from the premise that, indeed, a glance

upon the whole perspective of the juridical science' system and of the branch disciplines that

students have to go through is needed, even if there were voices saying that its place would be more

adequate in the last year of study when such disciplines are already studied and assimilated.

The General Theory of Law copes with a specific object: it follows "its logical organization

within the explicative process it coordinates, it systemizes knowledge, tightly cooperating with the

specific language of branch sciences"

1

.

The General Theory of Law studies concepts, categories, principles and basic notions

regarding law. It is the "laboratory where are created: "the essential instruments through which the

law, as an aggregate, is elaborated"

2

and it studies its elementary formal structure, the system's

joints; its method consists in generalization, grounded upon the study of the juridical phenomenon,

being the effective expression of the branches' synthesis

3

.

The General Theory of Law has elaborated essential instruments to think the law with, into

specialized literature

4

. Among them are concepts like: "the law (its essence, contents and form), the

juridical norm, the source of law, the juridical relationship, the juridical technique, etc." categories

and notions expressing realities and contained as such by it.

We might say that the finality of the General Theory of Law is to analyse the law's structural

elements and to expose the principles of its basis in their essence. The fact that it is also named

"Introduction to law" is to be explained by the general informative purpose that this discipline

fulfils for the law as an ensemble. The General Theory of Law deals with its, wholeness, with its

determining, its joints and inner features, its components and structure, providing for it the

expression of fundamental concepts. It is built on the ground of the whole Law, not upon some

whatever side of it. Thus, the General Theory of Law is not a branch of it, but a juridical matter "of

large generality and principality"

5

.

Its specific asset consist in the fact that it elaborates fundamental concepts, studying the

genre of law (as a whole), not the species (whatever branch of it), expressing the determining core

of the whole, not some side of it, thereby functioning as a science of essentializing

6

, even if some

1

Nic olae Popa, Mihail-Constantin Eremia, Simona Cristea, Teoria generală a dreptului, Ediţia 2, Editura All Beck,

Bucureşti, 2005, p.7

2

Nicolae Popa, Teoria generală a dreptului, Editura All Bec k, Bucureşti, 2002, p. 8

3

See, to this purpose: Ion Dogaru, Dan Claudiu Dănişor and Gheorghe Dănişor, Te oria generală a dreptului, Editura

Ştiinţifică, Bucureşti, 1999, p. 6.

4

See: N. Popa, op, cit., p. 8; see R. N iţoiu, Al. Şorop, Teoria generală a dreptului, university manual, Ed. a 3-a Edi tura

C.H. Beck, 2008, Bucureşti, p. 2.

5

Ion Dogaru, Elemente de teoria generală a dreptului. Ed. O ltenia, Craiova, 1994, p. 32

6

Ibidem, p. 32-33