Artikel

Nieuwe rechtsdimensies

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Abstract

New dimensions of justice — When we look at the principal legal developments of the last few decades three aspects emerge in boldest relief. These aspects can be called the three major dimensions of law and justice of our time. The first dimension is the constitutional one. A growing number of countries have experienced a tremendous expansion of constitutional law since the end of the second world war. Not only did they adopt written Constitutions and constitutional Bills of Rights, but they also tried to make such texts effective as the binding „supreme law” of their societies. The second major dimension of law and justice is the transnational dimension. It is the fascinating movement of contemporary men and women attempting to overcome a conception of the national state as the only source of law and justice, by creating a supranational Rule of Law binding over and beyond the nations. This new Rule of Law is based upon a transnationally accepted set of fundamental values, which are to be enforced by an effective system of international agencies and courts designed to ensure the conformity of governmental action to such values. Last but not least there is what one might call the social dimension. The power of the „united working classes” has become the mighty engine of a new radical social evolution and has attacked the ideals of the liberal state inherited from the great „bourgeois revolution”. Still it is unreasonable to condemn as „bourgeois” the traditional individual and political rights and freedoms and to plead for their indiscriminate abolition. Rather, these traditional rights and freedoms should be moulded and integrated with the new „social rights”. It appears from many signs that the constitutional, the transnational and the social trends have today become the common frontiers of a new Rule of Justice and a new Rule of Law. A trend, however, is not yet an accomplished reality. But one must be aware that the most apocalyptic of fates threatens mankind if a deeply-reaching legal, social and spiritual revolution is not accomplished soon.

How to Cite:

Cappelletti, M., (1980) “Nieuwe rechtsdimensies”, Tijdschrift voor Sociale Wetenschappen 25(2), 111–121. doi: https://doi.org/10.21825/tvsw.94757