Chapter 1: Communism and Law
1.4. Utilization of law -part 2-
Related to the use of the law, there is the issue of interpretation of the law. Once a law has been enacted, it becomes applicable in practice, but since the wording of the law is often left open to interpretation, issues of interpretation arise as a prerequisite for its application. The issue is who has the official right to interpret the law.
The trend in today's world is to give such authority for interpretation to the judicial branch (courts), which is separate from the legislative branch. The degree of independence of the judicial branch varies from country to country, and in some cases the judicial branch is institutionally or de facto subordinate to the executive branch, which is responsible for the application and enforcement of the law, but on the surface, many countries advocate "judicial independence."
However, it is not possible to fully explain why an "independent" judiciary can make arbitrary decisions by separating only the interpretation of enacted laws, or in other words, why the legislature has no right to interpret laws. This problem is made all the more difficult by considering that interpretation of the law, unlike the formal application of the law, has the same substance as secondary legislation.
In this regard, in the system of communist law, the interpretation of the law, as well as the application of the law, is an authority consistently held by the Commons' Convention, which has the legislative function. In many cases, a subordinate body of the Commons' Convention interprets the law as a precondition for applying the law. However, if a citizen to whom the law is applied objects, a dispute may arise over the interpretation of the law.
In such cases, it becomes necessary for a neutral body to make an authoritative judgment regarding the validity of the interpretation of the law, but communist law does not conceive of an independent judiciary. As mentioned above, the interpretation of the law is also included in the authority of the Commons' Convention that enacts the legislation. It is a consistent process in which the legislature, the Commons' Convention , also has the authority to interpret the laws it has enacted.
However, since the interpretation of the law is disputed when some legal dispute arises, it must be impartially adjudicated by an internal body of the Commons' Convention that is neutral and professional, separate from the normal legislative process of the Commons' Convention.
Therefore, the Jurisprudence Committee is permanently established as a standing committee of the Commons' Convention dedicated solely to the interpretation of the law. The members of the Jurisprudence Committee are legal experts who are exclusively engaged in interpreting the law, but they are not so-called judges, and they are also members of the delegation with the status of special delegates without voting rights in the Commons' Convention.
However, with regard to the interpretation of the Charter of the Commons' Convention, which is the supreme norm in the communist legal system, it is preferable that the interpretation power be assigned exclusively to a standing committee (Charter Committee) with the power to propose amendments or repeal of the Charter, separate from the Jurisprudence Committee, but the details will be dealt with again in the corresponding chapter.
👉The papers published on this blog are meant to expand upon my On Communism.
