Abstract
We tend to speak of the law as a system. But what exactly does it mean to think of law as a system? And in what sense are we actually talking about the system when describing contemporary law? While the previous discussions in Czech and Czechoslovak jurisprudence have focused mainly on the systematicity of legislation or branches of law, one of the benefits of this book is a perspective using the outcomes of the systems theory, which was in legal science mainly developed by German authors: Niklas Luhmann and Günter Teubner.
The monograph reflects a number of significant legal-theoretical debates, such as the incorporation of morality into law, the autonomy of law, the forms of legal pluralism, the role of legal principles and the importance of case law and legal doctrine in law. The book introduces the history of thinking about law as a system and approaches of selected legal theorists of the twentieth century (among others Hans Kelsen, H.
L. A.
Hart or Ota Weinberger). The main part focuses on the elements and structure of the legal system and on the relationship of law to other social subsystems (e.g. politics, economics and religion).
In the final part, theoretical conclusions are applied to the problems of horizontal effects of fundamental rights and pluralistic setting of legal systems.