The authors analyse
the conception of the constitutional principle of separation of powers in the recent decision
of the Constitutional Court of the Republic
of Slovenia in the PIC case
(U-I-194/19). The authors suggest that the reasoning of the Constitutional Court rests on a method of application of the principle
of separation of powers which they designate as "the typical functions doctrine”. This doctrine accords a typical function
to each of the branches
of government and prohibits
the other branches
from interfering with that function.
In deter- mining the content of the typical functions, the
doctrine relies on a typology which classifies legal acts on the basis of their
general or individual nature and their abstractness or concreteness. The
authors then proceed to analyse two aspects of the typical
functions doctrine. First,
they discuss the potentially
broad scope of the doctrine; subsequently, they
question its understanding of the typical function of the executive branch.
Keywords: constitutional law, the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Slovenia, the principle of separation of powers, the typical functions
doctrine, the executive branch.