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4 Ratio Juris 1 (1991)

handle is hein.journals/raju4 and id is 1 raw text is: Ratio Juris. Vol. 4 No. 1 March 1991 (1-17) copyright © Viktor Knapp 1991 Some Problems of Legal Language VIKTOR KNAPP Abstract. The author moves from the consideration of law as a set of rules serving as a means of socially regulating human conduct. He focuses on the fact that in order to fulfil its function, the law must be seen as a type of information. In this perspective law is a particular language and therefore gives rise to linguistic problems, linked to the technical character of juristic discourse. The author deals with some of the linguistic and sociological aspects of legal language and attempts to pinpoint some trends of interlingual development.* I. Law and Language There are many definitions of law, sometimes considerably different from one another. In this paper I shall consider law as a set of valid legal rules in a given state serving as one of the means of social regulation of human behaviour. Consequently, the law is a set of special rules for human behaviour. However, the law not only makes men behave in a certain way, but also informs them necessarily how they shall or shall not behave, as the case may be, and informs them at the same time of the consequences of such behaviour. It follows that the law is not only a system of legal rules (a compulsory system), but also an information system (Knapp 1978, 5ff.). Men are supposed to be informed of the law (cf. the generally recognized principle of ignorantia iuris non excusat), which necessitates communication between legislator and addressee of the legal rule. The means of this com- munication is always, i.e., not only in the case of written law, but also in the cases of judge-made law, customary law, etc., a certain language. It follows that the law gives rise to linguistic problems, especially those concerning the Abstract by M. La Torre.

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