Interpretation and “Crisis” of the Sources

Abstract

The text deals with the crisis of the theory of the sources of law due to the loss of space of exclusivity and primacy of the statute law. Thus, the traditional ordered and monolithic representation of the sources system, summarized in the familiar figure of the pyramid, is now replaced by more complex and disharmonious figures, such as the network, the archipelago and the Baroque building. First, it intends to defend the idea that the relations between the norms and the sources, within a Rule of Law, are essentially regulated by mechanisms of a hierarchical type. Second, it intends to show that the hierarchical relations between sources or between norms and that the identification of an act as a “source” are determined, in a predominant way, by the interpretative activity (in a broad sense) of the jurists and the enforcement bodies.