Law

Temporality of Law

It has been obvious since the Enlightenment, or beginning of the Modern Era, that differentiations are made between law, politics, and morals. Living an upright life has increasingly become a question of outwardly obeying laws with no particular regard to moral considerations. The difference between making and enforcing laws has been institutionally reinforced. In general, the judge's verdict has been given a legal framework and thus become much less dependent on the center of political powerdue in part to the condition that decisions must be made promptly. Law will always be power oriented, but, thanks to its own normative nature, it also establishes a bond with the future in that general expectations of an individual's behavior are stabilizedeven though these expectations may be disappointed in individual cases. An essential factor that fosters this function of law is the construction of its own temporality.

Self-reflexivity is a prerequisite for this construction of law's inherent time: Law exists, because it is validspecifically as long as it is valid. Differentiating between natural and legal time is therefore relevant for the validity of law. For example, as long as law is carried out under the auspices of a particular ruler, the validity of the regulations is bound to the “lifetime” of that ruler. As a result, the effectiveness of a legal system decisively depends on whether it is possible to create and change norms according to its own legal rules, in other words, to separate them from a specific time period. This process is particularly evident, because there is usually no mention made about when the validity of legal norms ends. They are, in a certain sense, “timeless.” In some cases possible changes are even explicitly excluded, for instance by rhetorical expressions, such as human rights are “inalienable,” human dignity is “inviolable,” and the core of a constitution is valid “forever.” These examples make it clear how the normative nature of law tries to immunize itself against social changes, especially in the field of politics. from a legal perspective, it may not be possible to prevent rulers from violating human rights; but by no means should they claim to act in accordance with the law when violations are committed.

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