The unity of legal order as a constitutional principle and statutory regulation of the legal order, with reference to the internal legal system

The article examines the legal base and the importance of applying the unity of the legal order as a constitutional principle in the statutory regulation of various areas of the legal order. Relying on the jurisprudence of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Serbia on the content and scope of application of the principle of unity of the legal order, the article elaborates on the legal grounds and prominent characteristics underlying the relations between systemic, general and special laws as compared to statutory law as a system. In particular, the author focuses on establishing the distinction between statutory law as a system, legal system and legal order. Besides focusing on the unity of the legal order as a constitutional principle, the author observed the doctrinal standpoint on differentiation between substantive laws and formal (procedural) laws, as well as the distinction between direct and subsidiary application of the general law. The unity of the legal order as a constitutional principle draws its own purpose and meaning from the need to ensure that different statutory law systems do not endanger constitutionality, equality before the law, and legal principles gover­ning different areas of the legal order, which should ultimately provide for the preservation of the legal order. On the other hand, the unity of the legal order as a systematic and teleological correlation of laws, established by specifying the legal principles in the same or different areas of the legal order, is only a starting point for the construction of the internal legal system. In effect, the internal legal system is shaped by establishing systematic and teleological correlations between legal situations in typical legal cases, defining legal (substantive) standpoints and legal (teleological) perceptions. With reference to the scientific criticism of the normative concept of the legal system, the article provides an outline of the Serbian legal theory on the internal legal system, which is based on legal forms