A. Wagner, W. Werner, D. Cao (Eds.)
Interpretation, Law and the Construction of Meaning
Collected Papers on Legal Interpretation in Theory, Adjudication and Political Practice
▶ Stresses the existence of overlapping, competing and coexisting
legal discourses
▶ Challenges traditional approaches to legal interpretation
▶ Focuses on the application of law in such contexts as international
politics and diplomatic practice
▶ Combines insights from analytical legal theory with legal semiotics
2007, XIV, 219 p.
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Legal semiotics emphasizes the contingency and fluidity of legal concepts and stresses
the existence of overlapping, competing and coexisting legal discourses. In response to
new problems, changing power structures, changing societal norms and new faces of
injustice established doctrines are reconsidered, reformulated and partly replaced by
competing doctrines and hypotheses. Given the relative indeterminacy of law, it is no
surprise that the problem of interpretation has always been one of the focal points of
attention for legal semiotics. Who has the power to define words and concepts? Who
can successfully assume the power to speak on behalf of the legal community? Which
methods are used to justify the power to define?
This book discusses the questions mentioned above from three, related perspectives:
• Legal theory (Part I). This part discusses how more traditional approaches have dealt
with the problem of legal interpretation and indeterminacy, questions the methods
applied in traditional legal theory and offers new theoretical tools to understand the
problem of legal interpretation.
• Judicial reasoning (Part II). The insights discussed in Part I are refined using legal
semiotics, speech act theory and rhetorics and applied to the legal reasoning of courts
and tribunals either in common law and civil law traditions.
• Application of law in politics and diplomatic practice (Part III). Traditionally, the study of
legal reasoning has focussed on the application of law by courts and tribunals. However,
legal reasoning also takes place outside the courtroom and takes up in the political and
diplomatic arena. Who is included and excluded by particular conceptions of law? How
does law deal with the phenomenon of interculturality?
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