Legal Certainty in a Contemporary Context - Private and Criminal Law Perspectives

Thisbook addresses issues concerning the shifting contemporary meaning of legalcertainty. The book focuses on exploring the emerging tensions that existbetween the demand for legal certainty and the challenges of regulatingcomplex, late modern societies. The book is divided into two parts: the firstpart focusing on debates around legal certainty at the national level, with aprimary emphasis on criminal law; and the second part focusing on debates atthe transnational level, with a primary emphasis on the regulation oftransnational commercial transactions.
Inthe context of legal modernity, the principle of legal certainty-the idea thatthe law must be sufficiently clear to provide those subject to legal norms withthe means to regulate their own conduct and to protect against the arbitraryuse of public power-has operated as a foundational rule of law value. Eventhough it has not always been fully realized, legal certainty has functioned asa core value and aspiration that has structured normative debates throughoutpolitical modernity, both at a national and international level.
Inrecent decades, however, legal certainty has come under increasing pressurefrom a number of competing demands that are made of contemporary law, inparticular the demand that the law be more flexible and responsive to a socialenvironment characterized by rapid social and technological change. Theexpectation that the law operates in new transnational contexts and regulatesevery widening sphere of social life has created a new degree of uncertainty,and this change raises difficult questions regarding both the possibility anddesirability of legal certainty.
This book compiles,  in one edited volume, research from a range ofsubstantive areas of civil and criminal law that shares a common interest inunderstanding the multi-layered challenges of defining legal certainty in alate modern society. The book will be of interest both to lawyers interested inunderstanding the transformation of core rule of law values in the context ofcontemporary social change and to political scientists and social theorists.

List of contents

The Shifting Meaning of Legal Certainty (Mark Fenwick and Stefan Wrbka).- Part I - Perspectives from Private Law.- Comments on Legal Certainty from the Perspective of European, Austrian and Japanese Private Law (Stefan Wrbka).- Intellectual Property, Private Ordering and Legal Certainty(Branislav Hazucha).- Considerations on the Transnationality of International Commercial Arbitration Awards in the Context of the Demand for Legal Certainty (Jason D. Hitch).- The Notion of Consumer under EU Legislation and EU Case Law: Between the Poles of Legal Certainty and Flexibility (Jakob Søren Hedegaard and Stefan Wrbka).- Legal Certainty and Trusts in China (Zhen Meng).- Part II - Perspectives from Criminal Law.- Multilingual Norms in European Criminal Law (Georg C. Langheld).- Empirical Judgement in Criminal Proceedings (Sebastian Stehle).- The Multiple Uncertainties of the Corporate Criminal Law (Mark Fenwick).- Types of offenders - A Criminological Perspective in Historical Contexts (Kathrin Höffler).- International Criminal Law as a Means to Fight the 'Hostes Humani Generis'? - On the Dangers of the Concept of Enemy Criminal Law (Andreas Werkmeister).

About the author

Mark Fenwick Associate Professor, Faculty of Law,
Kyushu University, Japan

Stefan Wrbka Associate Professor, Faculty of Law,
Kyushu University,
Japan

Summary

This
book addresses issues concerning the shifting contemporary meaning of legal
certainty. The book focuses on exploring the emerging tensions that exist
between the demand for legal certainty and the challenges of regulating
complex, late modern societies. The book is divided into two parts: the first
part focusing on debates around legal certainty at the national level, with a
primary emphasis on criminal law; and the second part focusing on debates at
the transnational level, with a primary emphasis on the regulation of
transnational commercial transactions.

In
the context of legal modernity, the principle of legal certainty—the idea that
the law must be sufficiently clear to provide those subject to legal norms with
the means to regulate their own conduct and to protect against the arbitrary
use of public power—has operated as a foundational rule of law value. Even
though it has not always been fully realized, legal certainty has functioned as
a core value and aspiration that has structured normative debates throughout
political modernity, both at a national and international level.

In
recent decades, however, legal certainty has come under increasing pressure
from a number of competing demands that are made of contemporary law, in
particular the demand that the law be more flexible and responsive to a social
environment characterized by rapid social and technological change. The
expectation that the law operates in new transnational contexts and regulates
every widening sphere of social life has created a new degree of uncertainty,
and this change raises difficult questions regarding both the possibility and
desirability of legal certainty.

This book compiles,  in one edited volume, research from a range of
substantive areas of civil and criminal law that shares a common interest in
understanding the multi-layered challenges of defining legal certainty in a
late modern society. The book will be of interest both to lawyers interested in
understanding the transformation of core rule of law values in the context of
contemporary social change and to political scientists and social theorists.

Product details

• Assisted by: Mar Fenwick (Editor), Mark Fenwick (Editor), Wrbka (Editor), Wrbka (Editor), Stefan Wrbka (Editor)
• Publisher: Springer, Berlin
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 01.01.2018
• EAN: 9789811090844
• ISBN: 978-981-10-9084-4
• No. of pages: 194
• Dimensions: 155 mm x 11 mm x 235 mm
• Weight: 318 g
• Illustrations: VII, 194 p.
• Subjects: Social sciences, law, business > Law > International law, foreign law; B, International Criminal Law, Private International Law, Law and Criminology, Conflict of Laws, comparative law, Public international law: criminal law