Legal Symbolism: On Law, Time and European Identity

JirA- PribA!n's book contributes to the field of systems theory of law in the context of European legal and political integration and constitution-making. It puts recent European legislative efforts and policies, especially the EU enlargement process, in the context of legal theory and philosophy. Furthermore, the author shows that the system of positive law has a symbolic meaning, reflecting how it also contributes to the semantics of political identity, democratic power and moral values, as well as the complex relations between law, politics and morality.

Contents: Series editor's preface; Introduction; Part I Theory of Symbolic Communication in Law: A Social Systems Perspective: Constitution-making and the symbolic rationality of law: a systemic differentiation of law, politics and morality; The symbolic evolution of political identity from the spirit of the laws; Law and the symbolization of time: the limits of dealing with the past and the future. Part II Identity and Law: European Reflections on Demos and Ethnos: Civil and ethnic traditions and identities: post-communist constitution-making in Central Europe; Identity, constitution-making and the enlargement of the European Union; The symbolic power of European law and search of European politics. Part III The Temporality of Justice: Between Retrospective Laws and Prospective Politics: The retrospectivity of laws and the temporality of justice in post-communist Central Europe; Moral paradoxes of legal justice: an analysis of restitutive and administrative dealing with the past; On legal symbolism and social theory: concluding remarks; Bibliography; Index.