- What is the current law?
- Characteristics of current law
- Examples of current law
- Initiation of validity
- Positive law and current law
We explain what the current law is, its characteristics and examples. In addition, its relationship with positive law.
What is the current law?
In the legal sciences and the law, we speak of current law to refer to some rule, law, doctrine or provision that is in force, that is, compliance with which is mandatory in a territory and certain time.
In other words, the current law is the current set of rules and laws, valid and valid, at least until they are repealed by the institution corresponding (normally the legislative power) and/or superseded by new regulations and laws.
Existing law is the exact opposite of lapsed or repealed law, and is often considered part of the so-called positive right, since it is the most current version of the formal laws of a State. But we will delve into this difference later.
In any case, the validity of the law depends on whether the rules it proposes are of current and mandatory application, or if it is rather a matter of past jurisprudence, of historical value and non-mandatory compliance (not in force).
For example, in the United States in the mid-20th century, the law established a strict separation between its citizens whites and their Afro-descendant citizens, granting the former a very notorious series of privileges. That law has been left behind for a long time and has just been repealed, so that it is not in force and therefore its regulations are no longer valid, that is, it no longer has to be obeyed.
Characteristics of current law
The current law is characterized as follows:
- The current law is imposed by the Condition and legal bodies, whether their origin lies in the customary (that is, in the custom of the people) or that has been formally legislated by the government. In any of the cases, the forces of the State compel compliance.
- Like all laws, the current law is valid in a specific territory and under a specific jurisdiction, but in your case it depends greatly on the time factor, since laws tend to change as society changes as well. That does not mean that a very old law cannot continue to be valid today, of course.
- The law in force ceases to be so when new laws and regulations appear to replace the previous ones or when State agencies decide to repeal it.
Examples of current law
Any of the ordinances, regulations and laws that are currently in force in our country serve as an example of the current law.
On the other hand, the laws and provisions that exist in the national Constitution prior to the current one will have lost their validity, that is, they no longer apply, they are no longer valid. This happened, for example, in Venezuela in 1999, when the Magna Carta in force until then was repealed and a new one (in force from then on) was popularly approved.
That same Constitution was later modified in 2009 to amend a series of articles, and in this way the old text of said articles lost its validity, and was replaced by a new current text. Therefore, in this case, only the most recent and established texts belong to the current law.
Initiation of validity
Normally, the validity of a law begins after it has been approved by the competent bodies and published so that its content is public knowledge, which can happen in two different ways:
- Successive entry, when the law enters into force on the day of its publication in the gazette or the official gazette in charge of transmitting legislative decisions to the citizenry. From that moment on, it is considered public knowledge and becomes valid.
- Synchronous entry, when the law itself sets the time of its entry into force, provided that the law has been published previously (so that people can know).
Positive law and current law
We must not confuse existing law with positive law. We understand positive law to be the compilation of all the laws that have been enacted by a sovereign State and are written in decrees, agreements, regulations, constitutions, etc
In this it differs, for example, from natural law (which is born with the people) and customary law (which is established by the custom of the people).
Now, positive law may be in force, when it comes to current regulations and in value, or it may be historical legal texts, whose obedience is no longer required by the State. However, not all current law is positive, since customary or natural law, if it is still valid, will also become part of current laws.
In summary: positive law is the law that has written origin, in force or not; while the current law is the current and valid law, whatever its origin.