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Max Planck Encyclopedia of Comparative Constitutional Law [MPECCoL]

Theories Concerning the Hierarchy of Norms

Cesare Pinelli

Content type:
Encyclopedia entries
Product:
Max Planck Encyclopedia of Comparative Constitutional Law [MPECCoL]
Article last updated:
September 2016

From: Oxford Constitutions (http://oxcon.ouplaw.com). (c) Oxford University Press, 2023. All Rights Reserved.date: 11 December 2024

Subject(s):
Constitutional interpretation — Form and substance of constitution — Comparative constitutional law — International law

General Editors: Rainer Grote, Frauke Lachenmann, Rüdiger Wolfrum
Managing Editor: Martina Mantovani

1. Conflicts between norms arise within a legal system, and between legal systems, when two norms addressing the same issue are held to be mutually incompatible. When a ruling needs to be made on a given issue, judges have to decide between the two conflicting norms. In legal discourse, ‘hierarchy of norms’ is one of the main criteria for managing such conflicts, or rules of collision, and consists in giving prevalence to one norm over the other due to its alleged superiority. In instances in which it can, eg, be assumed that the constitution prevails over...
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