Категорії конституційних норм

Abstract

This article deals with a field of constitutional law, the fundamental theory of written constitutions. The relevance for the field of administrative law results from the very common fact: a constitution is a basis and the framework of State administration and administrative law. “Administrative Law is the concretization of Constitutional Law”, as F. Werner wrote 50 years ago and this sentence is something like the “European standards” on European soil. Therefore, the question arises, whether a constitutional norm is of a binding character, whether a norm contains a general objective for all State powers, or is it crucial also for the administration when elaborating programs, sub-laws and applying discretional powers. Constitutions consist of norms, the most popular are the norms, which fix the fundamental rights and freedoms. However, the complex systems of constitutional law (national) have a number of types of constitutional norms, which have different functions and – most of all – different binding character. These types are usually the result of a review by a constitutional court. Such decisions raise doubt when constitutions order the “direct effect” of their norms. But the authors of constitutions sometimes have in mind “rights”, which can exist only in a country of dreams. Or after decades, the facts changed but the constitutional norm still exists. If amendments to a constitution are impossible, the only way out is re-interpretation of such norms. Otherwise, the constitution carries a contradiction, which weakens the authority of a constitution. This article shall present a comprehensive oversight of these categories in order to enrich the discussion on Constitutional law in Ukraine. The description of these types follows the categorization, proposed mainly by German authors, who included comparative law approaches on this topic. The picture of these categories shows an impressive number of such categories and offers arguments to deal with questions on the Constitutional law of Ukraine.