The Mechanism of the Evolution of Law
doc. JUDr. MUDr., PhD. Dr. iur., Alexander Dubček University of Trenčín, Slovakia
The main hypothesis of the article is that law, like all other cultural elements, is subject to the mechanism of collective evolutionary selection. Every human community (the State, a nation or a tribe) has its own cultural superstructure, its own civilisation model (which includes also normative systems and law). This cultural superstructure (or civilisation model) – and within their framework also legal systems – cannot exist without some given society in which it is applied. An individual society and a certain cultural superstructure and normative system applied in society are interlinked and cannot exist without one another. Their fates are intertwined. There is a wide spectrum of variants of civilisation models. Along with the success of one community (economic development, expansion, population growth etc.) also its civilisation model spreads. On the other hand, the growth of a given community and its expansion and prestige are not based only on chance but are the results of a whole complex of qualities provided by a given cultural superstructure including a legal system. From a long-term global point of view throughout human history in this manner the more effective civilisation models or cultural superstructures prevailed. They are becoming fundaments for new modifications in a never-ending cycle. And this process is usually called progress.
