The System of Principles of Private Law

Abstract

The phenomenon of principles of law – both principles in general and principles of private law – tends to enjoy irregular scholarly attention that occurs in sinusoidal forms. At times of (positivist) emphasis on written or even codified law, principles tend to be overlooked. What rules the law – as regards theory, legislation, and practice – is a verbalised formal system of written legal rules. Such periods of belief in the omnipotence of written law tend to be regularly followed by periods of doubt and the acknowledgement that even ideal legislators are unable to take into account all conceivable situations. This finding often has an empirical nature and follows from the mistaken belief that the more detailed, thorough, and extensive the text of a law is, the more effectively it will work in practice.