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THE RULE OF LAW REVISITED — FINNISH APPROACH
There was a parallel between the just-described Hungarian vision and the
aims of the Finnish criminal law reform. In the 1990s, the bilateral criminal law
seminars revealed a strong common interest in criminal law theory and practice,
which took seriously the requirements of constitutionality and human rights. In
the discussions of the 1996 Miskolc seminar turned out that the model or contents
of the Rechtsstaat differed between Finland and Hungary, and they do differ also
today. In Finland, there is not a special Constitutional court like in Hungary.
Traditionally, a preventive and an abstract control of norms during the legislative
process has prevailed in Finland and also in other Nordic countries. However, the
ratification of the European Convention of Human Rights (Treaty of Rome of 1950)
and the reform of constitutional rights in the 1990s implied a direct applicability
of individual’s fundamental (human and/or basic) rights in the courts. The new
Finnish Constitution of 731/1999 even empowers the general courts to give in their
judicial decisions priority to the provisions of the Constitution over an ordinary
Act of Parliament in the case of “obvious conflict”.
Due to different legal traditions, the exchange of information and scientific
views about the significance of rule of law and constitutionalism in relation to
criminal law and procedure was especially fruitful. For instance, the decisions
of the Hungarian Constitutional Court on the abolition of death penalty and
on the reasoning how the principles of ultima ratio and nullum crimen sine
lege limit the use of criminal law were highly interesting examples of the
“constitutional penal law”.® It is worth noticing that Imre A. Wiener advised
to separate problems affecting constitutional law and the internal systems of
other branches of law (such as criminal and procedural law) in contrast to
certain “over-constitutionalism”.’ I for my part I have emphasized that while the
moral and political arguments of justice and humanity are now firmly fastened
(although not exhaustively) to human rights and constitutional law, criminal
8 The proceedings of the 1996 seminar include several relevant articles of Hungarian scholars,
see especially Farkas, Akos — Roth, Erika, The Constitutional Limits of the Efficiency of
Criminal Justice, Acta Juridica Hungarica 37 (1995/1996), 139-150; Horvath, Tibor, The
Problems of Constitutional Regulation of the Right to Life, Acta Juridica Hungarica 37
(1995/1996), 231-242; Lévai, Miklés, The Rule of Law and Criminalisation, Acta Juridica
Hungarica 37 (1995/1996), 259-272; Wiener, Imre A., The Necessity Test Relevant to the
Codification of Criminal Law, Acta Juridica Hungarica 37 (1995/1996), 335-346. See also
Wiener, Imre A., Constitution and Criminal Law, Acta Juridica Hungarica 38 (1997),
19-37. Cf. from the Finnish point of view especially Kimmo Nuotio, The Difficult Task of
Drafting Law on Principles, Acta Juridica Hungarica 37 (1995/1996), 287-302; Ari-Matti
Nuutila, The Reform of Fundamental Rights and the Criminal Justice System in Finland,
Acta Juridica Hungarica 37 (1995/1996), 303-314.
° Wiener, The Necessity Test, 345-346; Wiener, Constitution and Criminal Law, 27-37.
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