On the Incoherence of Legal Language to the General Public
On the Incoherence of Legal Language to the General Public
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DOI：
10.1007/s11196-010-9176-7
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发表时间：
2011-03-01
影响因子：
0.8
通讯作者：
Azuelos-Atias, Sol
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Azuelos-Atias, Sol
在本文中，我将提出一种可能的解释，解释法律语言对公众来说似乎不连贯的事实。我将提出一份法律文本（起诉书），解释为什么它对法律外行来说显得不连贯。我认为，使该特定文本显得不连贯的特征是，首先，隐含地传达了专门的法律含义，其次，没有关键字可以引导外行人了解使该含义对法律主义者来说显而易见的知识。我的结论是，任何具有这些特征的法律文本都可能对公众来说显得不连贯，并表明使我的例子显得不连贯的特征在不同法律体系的各种文本中可能相当常见。根据这一建议，没有必要假设律师的社会利益与法律语言的明显不一致之间存在任何因果关系，因为这意味着这种不一致是不可避免的。 （我认为，这是由于法律语言是在法律话语的特殊语境中以普通方式使用的普通语言这一事实的结果。）
I will suggest, in this article, a possible explanation of the fact that legal language appears incoherent to the general public. I will present one legal text (an indictment), explaining why it appears incoherent to legal laypersons. I will argue that the traits making this particular text appear incoherent are, first, that a specialized legal meaning is conveyed implicitly and, second, that there are no keywords that could direct laypersons to the knowledge making this meaning obvious to legalists. I will conclude that any legal text having these traits is likely to appear incoherent to the general public and suggest that the traits making my example appear incoherent might be rather common among the various texts of the various legal systems. On this suggestion there is no need to assume any causal relation between lawyers' social interests and the apparent incoherence of legal language as it entails that this incoherence is inevitable. (I will argue that it is a result of the facts that legal language is ordinary language used, in the ordinary way, in the special context of the legal discourse.)