If a State respects the principle of legality, it can be described as a State governed by the rule of law. In these cases, state action is limited by the constitution and does not overwhelm a citizen`s rights. The principle of legality means that the law is the only formal, direct and immediate source of law. This principle is already enshrined in the constitutions of the States and is a fundamental principle for safeguarding the rule of law. The principle of legality is a fundamental principle used by most States, according to which any exercise of official authority must be carried out in accordance with the law in force and its jurisdiction, and not according to the will of the people. If a state adheres to this principle, then the actions of its powers are subject to the Constitution and the current state or rule of law. It is considered that legal certainty requires that the actions of persons subject to the authorities be subject to the principle of legality. The principle is sometimes considered the « golden rule » of public law and is a necessary condition for affirming that a State is a State governed by the rule of law, since power has its foundation and its limit in legal norms. In close connection with this principle, the institution of the reservation of rights obliges the specific question to be regulated by norms which have the rank of law, in particular those relating to the intervention of public authorities in the field of the rights of the individual.

Therefore, these are matters that are prohibited by the rules and regulations issued by the executive. The reservation of rights reflects the liberal doctrine of separation of powers by preserving the rights of the legislative branch. Starting from the general principle of legality, we find some variants and specifications: a ruler cannot act in this way in a way that contradicts the provisions of the Constitution, which compiles the essential norms of the State. According to the principle of legality, it is not enough that the leader in question was elected by referendum or that he was appointed president after winning the election: all his governmental measures must be subject to the law. In a broader sense, the principle of reservation of rights is the set of provisions whose regulation concerns only parliaments and which must be defined in the form of a law. The fundamental basis of constitutional law, which requires that certain important issues can only be settled by law in order to ensure that they pass through the plural discussions that exist in each legislative branch. It should not be understood as a mere formality, but as an opportunity for representatives of popular sovereignty to duly discuss particularly important issues. In Venezuela, this fundamental principle can be ignored in terms of content from the moment a law can be passed that allows the president to dictate laws on all matters of what happened and produced laws that were published without public discussion. Example: « An example of the principle of legality is that criminal offences can only be established by law. » Although its scope is determined by the constitution of each country, criminal law is generally based on the principle of legality. It is therefore common ground that an offence can be regarded as such only if the law expressly so provides. Thus, the principle of legality prevents a person from being arbitrarily accused and convicted of a crime.

The principle of legality, as well as other general principles of law, is at the origin and basis of the rules. General principles take precedence over other sources of law. They are the basis of positive law. To put it even more simply, the principle of legality means that all public power and every private act must be exercised by virtue of a written law. The main application of the principle of legality in administrative law is its power to impose sanctions. This implies that the assignment of the public administration to the sanction can only be made by law. Paul Johann Anselm von Feuerbach established this principle in criminal law on the basis of the maxim nullum crime, nulla poena sine praevia lege, i.e. To qualify as a crime, he must be described as such before engaging in such behavior, and the penalty imposed must be determined in advance by law. -the principle of fiscal legality.

This establishes that only a statutory provision having the character of a law can determine the basis for tax obligations. That is, only in this way can it determine who is faced with the payment of the same thing, with what data, by what system, the acts classified as offences and even what sanctions apply to their incarceration. Criminal legality is thus a limit on the punitive power of the State in that only conduct expressly designated as a crime in a law prior to the commission of the offence can be punished. The constitutional principle of legality in tax matters implies that the creation, modification and abolition of taxes, as well as the granting of tax exemptions and other tax advantages, the determination of the chargeable event, taxpayers, teachers and source holders, the corresponding tax rates and the tax base must be carried out by law. Although this principle has a common meaning and is subject to the law, we can see the differences between the different jurisdictions: although this principle derives from all legal systems (civil, administrative, labor, legal and legal), in criminal jurisdiction it is the area where it reaches its full effect. Within the framework of the principle of legality, it acts in conjunction with the principle of the general interest, according to which the private interest must give way to the public or social interest, and with the principle of the separation of powers, according to which the public authority is divided into bodies with specific and limited functions for each of them. This relationship between the principle of legality and that of the reservation of rights is generally established – in a democracy – in the so-called legal system and is treated in a particularly dogmatic way in constitutional, administrative, tax and criminal law. Serve a sentence so that those involved in the sentence can repeat the crime that may have arisen. The principle of legality, also known as the primacy of the law, is defined as the primacy of the law over any other activity or act owned by public authority. -the principle of administrative legality, which is responsible for ensuring that every action, decision and measure adopted by the administration is subject to the law.

In other words, the principle of legality means the submission of States and authorities to the law and the legislative process. Otherwise, it would mean the exercise of arbitrary power. Content: the elements that make up the principle of legality. On the one hand, it can be examined according to the literal content of legality from a formal point of view and in its material sense: in general, it implies that all public authorities and all citizens are subject to the law and that they can only do what is permitted or not prohibited by law. The principle of legality is linked to other general principles of law. According to the principle of legality in criminal law: in the case of Spain, the principle of legality is included in the provisional title of the 1978 Constitution. Thus, Article 9.3 on the principles of the legal order of the person in question is set out in Article 9.3. In particular, it is noted that, like these others, it is fully guaranteed: it is known as the principle of legality for the primacy of the law over any activity or function of public authority. This means that everything that emanates from the state must be regulated by law and never by the will of the individual. In tax law, on the basis of the principle of legality, each individual element of the tax liability can only be defined by a legal provision of a legal nature, i.e.: the chargeable event, the entities liable to pay, the system or basis for determining the chargeable event, the time of payment, violations, sanctions and exemptions, as well as the entity legalized to receive the payment of taxes.

The Latin maxim nullum tributum sine legem states that to be considered as such, a tribute must be contained in a law, otherwise it is not a tribute.