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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. * 399 «
