Walter R. Schluep, Zum Wirtschaftsrecht. Eine Sammlung von Aufsätzen, Bern 1978, p. 1-34.
Schluep Walter R. – Zum Wirtschaftsrecht
Summary
In this essay, Prof. Dr. Walter R. Schluep analyzes different areas of economic law, each area forming a different chapter. Therein, he discusses the nature, structure, characteristics as well as the type of economic law and its position in the legal system.
The starting point is the character of economic law. Here, Prof. Schluep explains how the economic law and law of the economy differ and what they include. In order to make the distinctions, he relies on various theories and methods. He starts with the four basic tenors (sociologic method, association between natural justice and economic law, collecting pond and conflict law) that the doctrine has. But he criticize that those criteria are insufficient to form an own category of economic law standards. Further Schluep mentions economy need to be seen as a concrete object. This leads in many different perceptions of what economy include. However, Schluep reflects those perceptions and illustrates the difficulties with them. At the end of this chapter he summarize that economic law is the law of economic coordination or economic system. The standards which set the coordination type built the topic of economic law.
The next chapter deals with the structure of economic law and the coordination types. The structure of economic law is, according to Prof. Schluep, divided into two parts: on the one hand, there is the economic constitutional law, which elevates the fundamental political decisions on the coordination of the economic system to a state of legal effect and, on the other hand, there is the co-ordination law, which is crucial for economic law’s structure. The question then arises as to whether an economic constitution exists or not. Prof. Schluep divides the characteristics of economic law into three sections: functionality, institutionalism and technicality. Depending on the economic constitutional law (competition or planned economy), Prof. Schluep distinguishes two types of economic law. Depending on the type, the actions vary. Thus, for example, a measure can be deemed as an institutional protection of competition whenever the co-ordination is left to the competition. In the planned economy, on the other hand, a special planning law must be developed. The conclusion of this text deals with the classification of commercial law in the legal system.