The Concept of Legal Language: Law is Language

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ondřej Glogar
Keyword(s):  
Speech Acts ◽  
Legal Language ◽  
Abstract System ◽  
Semiotic Approach ◽  
Communicative Theory ◽  
Theory Of Law ◽  
In The Beginning ◽  
Language Law

This paper deals with the metaphor ‘law is language’ coined by James Boyd White and how it can be useful to understand the concept of legal language, connections between law and language and how the term language is used in the legal realm. In the beginning, the article aims to give an overview of possible approaches to legal language and continues with further analysis of one of them (the above-mentioned White’s proposition). By applying a semiotic approach to this concept, namely Saussure’s theory of distinguishing between langue (language) and parole (speaking), the paper helps to understand that language (and even legal language) can be understood in two different forms. It can be either considered an abstract system of signs, or it can be comprehended as individual speech acts – langue and parole, respectively. White’s metaphor is usually used in the meaning of texts, way of reading, writing and speaking. However, such conception corresponds to language in the sense of parole. These considerations lead at the end of the article towards the communicative theory of law and its merits to jurisprudence. According to a given doctrine, in some instances it can be more accurate to consider law as communication rather than language (and vice versa). Nevertheless, in either case, it is essential to bear in mind the distinction between both of the concepts.

scholarly journals SIGNIFYING RELIGION IN SYMBOL: LOOKING UP THE RISE OF INDONESIAN RED CRESCENT (BSMI) IN PUBLIC LIFE

2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 254-270
Author(s):  
Taufiqurrohim Taufiqurrohim ◽  
Ahmad Yunus
Keyword(s):  
Social Interaction ◽  
Social Movement ◽  
Religious Identity ◽  
Public Life ◽  
The Other ◽  
The People ◽  
The Social ◽  
Semiotic Approach ◽  
History Of ◽  
In The Beginning

In the beginning, the surface of BSMI problematizes the red symbol that was used by PMI because it was analyzed as a Christian symbol, feeling hesitant when used as a cross symbol in humanitarian missions is the basic reason as their appearance of religiosities in public life. Talking about the symbol, the crescent has a long history of how it can be “identified” as a symbol of Islam and how the people identified those as an identity of the religion by signifying sacred behind the symbol. The symbolization of religion cannot be separated from the method of semiotic approach where explains the science of sign. Through this sign, people can find their identity and communicatewith each other as social interaction and also find a sacred behind the symbol. For the last theory, I would use the social movement and development that indicate the turn organization not only happen in the case of philanthropy but also will eradicate to the other social application movement. Therefore, in my opinion, the surface of BSMI cannot be rid by the development of crescent symbol interpretation as a symbolization of religious identity due to symbolism as a way to communicate and interact with society

“You Were Interested in Him as a Person?”: Rhythms of Domination in the Kennedy Smith Rape Trial

1997 ◽  
Vol 22 (01) ◽  
pp. 55-93 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gregory M. Matoesian
Keyword(s):  
Legal Language ◽  
Linguistic Ideologies ◽  
Language And Culture ◽  
Social Actors ◽  
Sexual Identities ◽  
Apparent Inconsistency ◽  
Rape Trial ◽  
The Law ◽  
Language Law

In this study I explore the theoretical and linguistic implications of the Kennedy Smith rape trial, using transcriptions of real live testimony as data. I examine theoretically how the logic of inconsistency in trial testimony of the victim and other witnesses activates an interaction among language, law, and culture as an epistemological practice of domination. In microlinguistic detail, I examine the categorization of action, linguistic ideologies, and situated rhythms of legal language through which our sexual identities are constituted to create an apparent inconsistency in the victim's account. Looking at the law-in-action, I hope to show how social actors use language and culture to create meaning in their legal interaction.

Speech acts in legal language: introduction

2009 ◽  
Vol 41 (3) ◽  
pp. 393-400 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jacqueline Visconti
Keyword(s):  
Speech Acts ◽  
Legal Language

Theory of Law, Jurilinguistics and Legal Language: A common task

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 131-150
Author(s):  
Eduardo C. B. Bittar
Keyword(s):  
Legal Language ◽  
Joint Work ◽  
Legal Translation ◽  
Common Task ◽  
Gradual Development ◽  
Transnational Justice ◽  
Globalization Of Law ◽  
Theory Of Law ◽  
Cosmopolitan Law ◽  
Global Law

AbstractThis paper sets a clear interdisciplinary boundary of the joint work between the Theory of Law and Jurilinguistics, surrounding the role of legal language. The paper attempts to contemplate the challenges of the globalization of Law in the 21st century, and launches the challenge of the formation of a common place, to be established by political language and legal language, in order to favour the procedural and gradual development of Global Law. Thus, today, in the period of transition between international law and cosmopolitan law, the regulation of global life increasingly demanding of translation professionals. For this reason, when practising legal translation, their contribution is not limited to the transition from language a quo to language ad quem, but to the construction of classes that form a tertium, and it is from this residue of translation processes that it starts to open itself to the possibility of a legal expertise common to everybody starts to open up. Jurilinguistics has the task of collating and systemising these practices, to contribute to the Theory of Law, towards achieving the new scale of the project of modernity, that is, the formation of transnational justice.

scholarly journals SPEECH ACTS AND ACTIONS IN LEGAL LANGUAGE: CONCEPTUAL ANALYSIS

2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 12-26
Author(s):  
Anton B. Didikin
Keyword(s):  
Human Behavior ◽  
Social Order ◽  
Speech Acts ◽  
Typical Feature ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Legal Language ◽  
Criminal Proceedings ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Right ◽  
Legal Character

Reconsideration of legal phenomena by legal language means is a typical feature of analytical tradition in the legal philosophy, since legal regulations are expressed not only in language, but are inextricably linked with the linguistic content of rules whilst applying them. Language as a form of communication and representation of the world is a holistic and specific phenomenon, that is localized in speech acts that form subject’s intentions and his further actions. It is necessary to count the meaningful use of signs for the reality perception, that form the language. Legal reality and its language forms are inseparable, and thus, we can learn more deeply the essence of legal phenomena by interpreting legal texts and speech acts that illustrate legal intentions and actions. So in the speech acts theory of J.L. Austin introduces the category of com missives, denoting the obligations declared by the intentions of the person (promise, agree, intend, plan, provide, allow, swear, etc.). In legal language speech acts are used with the purposes of execution, prohibition, coercion for maintenance of a social order, therefore legal discourse has performative character. Performative expressions in legal language are characterized by speech stereotypes due to repetitive procedures (for example, procedural actions in criminal proceedings or court hearings). If it is a question of acts of application of the right, from the point of view of their performative form they have declarative character, that is contain instructions and obligations of legal character. The illocutionary function of these proposals is to form a respectful attitude to the established norms, and the perlocutive force is to impose compliance with these norms. The question of the relation of speech acts and actions in a different context was considered by Gilbert Ryle. Ryle’s key thesis is that the workings of consciousness should not be described as a complex of some point operations, but rather should be understood in the context of observed human behavior. Consciousness is determined by the actions of the subject, not by the construction of metaphysical entities. As a man thinks, so he acts. If the researcher inspects the scene of the accident, the notary certifies the authenticity of the documents drawn up, and the judge gives arguments for the adoption of a legitimate judicial decision, they do not need the whole set of causality relationships in nature, or an explanation that human behavior is completely determined, that he is not free, because he can not control the mental processes in consciousness. H.L.A. Hart defines the essence of legal statements and their ascription of attributing legal value of a particular performative speech acts. The arguments on the specific features of legal statements in the context of the existing concepts of J.L. Austin, J. Searle, H. Hart and their critics.

scholarly journals The Communicative Theory of the Society: Socio-Technological and Law Enforcement Contexts

2019 ◽  
pp. 35-44
Author(s):  
V. I. Przhilenskiy ◽  
V. D. Laza
Keyword(s):  
Law Enforcement ◽  
Social Development ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
Social Processes ◽  
Fundamental Difference ◽  
Social Production ◽  
Criminal Proceedings ◽  
Communicative Theory ◽  
Theory Of Law ◽  
Active Interaction

The article dwells on the causes and objectives of the emergence and evolution of the communicative theory of the society as a theory that allows not only to predict the development of the society, but also to manage social processes. Law enforcement system in general, and in criminal proceedings in particular, had been formed long before the emergence of this theory. But after the society was defined as a type of communication in the theory, the conditions for a truly scientific technologization of criminal proceedings were created: in fact, the whole theory of law was rebuilt in compliance with a new understanding of the phenomenon of sociality. Today, in the age of total digitalization of social and legal and law enforcement practices, the topic of the origins of the communicative theory of the society is actualized in a new way.The article analyzes the key elements of social and philosophical conceptualization of social processes and phenomena, compares the models of society proposed by O. Comte and K. Marx, whose works described the conditions for the presentation of the society as a reality. The author substantiates the statement that the alternative ways proposed by two theorists to explain social development as a function of “knowledge” or as a derivative of “social production” equally depend on the understanding of a person as a “set of social relations.” Particular attention is paid to the new opportunities opened up to theorists and philosophers in explaining the nature and functions of law in connection with the creation of the communicative theory of society. The article shows a fundamental difference in the understanding of law in the era preceding the development of sociology, and during the active interaction of legal theorists with the community of philosophers and sociologists. The author reconstructs a set of ontological assumptions that allow considering law as “a reproduction of the general conditions of the society existence” and make it possible to include the system of law in the system of social relations as a subsystem.

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