”Se on ihan jäsenten inhimillisistä ominaisuuksista kiinni”: Hyveet, oikeusvaltio ja perustuslakivaliokunta
Avainsanat:
perustuslainmukaisuuden valvonta, oikeusvaltio, perustuslakivaliokunta, hyveteoria, empiirinen oikeustutkimusAbstrakti
“It all depends on the human qualities of the members”: Virtues, the rule of law and the Constitutional Law Committee
Constitutional control is essential for the rule of law: it is meant to ensure that those who hold the highest political power do not transgress the boundaries of the constitution and do not use their power arbitrarily. However, it is often unclear what the constitution requires. The provisions containing basic rights and freedoms, in particular, can be vague and open-ended and hence allow various interpretations. It is possible to misuse this interpretive freedom to erode the rule of law by choosing interpretations that advance the powerholder’s interests. We argue that in order to protect the rule of law, something more is needed than just written rules and guidelines. Furthermore, it is important to pay attention to the individuals who apply the rules, especially to those who are authoritative interpreters of the constitution. What kind of personal characteristics are conducive to maintaining constitutionality and the rule of law? In short, what are the virtues of a guardian of the constitution? We focus on the Finnish Constitutional Law Committee (CLC) and study virtues of the CLC’s members empirically. We analyse interviews of the key actors of the CLC (n=49) from a virtue theoretical perspective. The results show what kind of virtues the members of the CLC, the legal officials of CLC, and the constitutional experts see as crucial for constitutionality control, and what kind of unofficial practices help in acquiring those virtues. We also recognised several vices of the members of the CLC, which threaten the Finnish rule of law if they become widespread.
