Application of the Lex Specialis Principle to Solving Conflicts in Legislation: Analysis of Court Practice

Abstract

The article is devoted to revealing the content of the principle of lex specialis when resolving conflicts in legislation. On the basis of the analysis of legislation, national judicial practice and the practice of the European Court of Human Rights, the essence and peculiarities of the application of the approach by the courts regarding the priority of the norms of a special law over the norms of the general law when resolving a conflict in legislation between acts of the same legal force have been clarified. The author substantiated that in order to overcome conflicts in legislation between norms of the same legal force, there is an approach to give priority to special norms over general ones, which is due to the effect of the principle of Lex specialis (special law, special norm). It has been established that according to this approach, in the event of a discrepancy between a general and a special law, a special law applies, as well as the principle of Lex specialis derogat generali, the essence of which boils down to the fact that a special law cancels the effect of a general law; the special norm has priority over the general one. It is argued that when applying the approach to overcome the conflict in legislation based on the principle of Lex specialis derogat generali, some problematic issues may arise in judicial practice. The author singled out the following problematic issues: what criteria characterize the law as «special»; how to act if there is a conflict between two special laws; which approach has priority: a special (substantive) or a later adopted act (temporal); what approach to apply if acts of the same legal force and special acts are adopted on the same day; how to act if acts of the same legal force have different but opposite dates of adoption and entry into force or implementation. Key words: legal conflict, substantive conflict, special law, administrative proceedings, the Supreme Court, the European Court of Human Rights.