Semiotics of International Law (eBook)
XXXII, 220 Seiten
Springer Netherland (Verlag)
978-90-481-9011-9 (ISBN)
Language carries more than meanings; language conveys a means of conceiving the world. In this sense, national legal systems expressed through national languages organize the Law based on their own understanding of reality. International Law becomes, in this context, the meeting point where different legal cultures and different views of world intersect.
The diversity of languages and legal systems can enrich the possibilities of understanding and developing international law, but it can also represent an instability and unsafety factor to the international scenario. This multilegal-system and multilingual scenario adds to the complexity of international law and poses new challenges. One of them is legal translation, which is a field of knowledge and professional skill that has not been the subject of theoretical thinking on the part of legal scholars. How to negotiate, draft or interpret an international treaty that mirrors what the parties, - who belong to different legal cultures and who, on many occasions, speak different mother tongues - ,want or wanted to say?
By analyzing the decision-making process and the legal discourse adopted by the WTO's Appellate Body, this book highlights the active role of language in diplomatic negotiations and in interpreting international law. In addition, it also shows that the debate on the effectiveness and legitimacy of International Law cannot be separated from the linguistic issue.
Language carries more than meanings; language conveys a means of conceiving the world. In this sense, national legal systems expressed through national languages organize the Law based on their own understanding of reality. International Law becomes, in this context, the meeting point where different legal cultures and different views of world intersect.The diversity of languages and legal systems can enrich the possibilities of understanding and developing international law, but it can also represent an instability and unsafety factor to the international scenario. This multilegal-system and multilingual scenario adds to the complexity of international law and poses new challenges. One of them is legal translation, which is a field of knowledge and professional skill that has not been the subject of theoretical thinking on the part of legal scholars. How to negotiate, draft or interpret an international treaty that mirrors what the parties, - who belong to different legal cultures and who, on many occasions, speak different mother tongues - ,want or wanted to say?By analyzing the decision-making process and the legal discourse adopted by the WTO's Appellate Body, this book highlights the active role of language in diplomatic negotiations and in interpreting international law. In addition, it also shows that the debate on the effectiveness and legitimacy of International Law cannot be separated from the linguistic issue.
Preface 7
Introduction 11
Preliminary Considerations 17
i. Toward a Scientific Analysis of Legal Discourse 17
ii. Scope of Study: Legal Discourse 19
iii. Epistemological Assumptions and Initial Concepts 21
Contents 28
Part I International Legal Discourse: Legal Culture Building Legal Discourse 31
1 Culture and Legal Culture: A Semiotic Approach 32
1.1 A Content for "Culture": Two Basic Concepts 32
1.2 The Semiotic Mechanism of Culture 34
1.3 One Concept of "Legal Culture" 38
2 Legal Culture as a System of Signification 42
2.1 The Notion of "Code" and Its Organizing Function in the Production and Interpretation of Discourse 42
2.2 Code and Language: A Distinction and a Fundamental Relationship for the Concept of Legal Culture from a Semiotic Standpoint 45
2.3 Legal Culture as a System of Linguistic Signs 48
3 Legal Culture as Communication 52
3.1 Legal Discourse and Other Kinds of Discourse 52
3.2 Criteria for a Typology of Legal Discourse 55
3.3 Resorting to the Sources of Law to Determine Relevant Discourse for a Study in Semiotics of Law 57
Part II International Legal Discourse: On Diplomatic Discourse and the Legal-Diplomatic Discourse 63
4 Diplomatic Discourse 64
4.1 Diplomacy and Intercultural Communication 64
4.2 An "International Signification" for Diplomatic Discourse 69
4.3 Diplomatic Discourse and the Problem of Choosing a Common Language 73
4.4 The Language War in Diplomacy 76
4.5 The Senders of Diplomatic Discourse and Legal-Diplomatic Discourse 81
5 Legal-Diplomatic Discourse 84
5.1 Codes of National Legal Cultures 84
5.2 Mutual Influences Between National Discourses and Legal-Diplomatic Discourse 92
5.3 A Third Thing 96
5.4 Legal-Diplomatic Discourse and the Language of Expression 99
5.5 The Translation of Legal-Diplomatic Discourse 102
6 The Power of Legal-Diplomatic Discourse 110
6.1 A Founding Discourse for International Legal Systems: The WTO 110
6.2 The Subjective and Objective "Camouflage" of Legal-Diplomatic Discourse 117
6.3 The Active Role of Foreign Language 120
6.4 Ideology in Legal-Diplomatic Discourse 125
Conclusion to Parts I and II 130
Part III The WTO Decision-Making Discourse: the Circumstances of Decision-Making Discourse 131
7 From GATT to the WTO: Regulating International Trade 133
7.1 GATT: "A Mere Agreement" 133
7.2 From the Diplomatic Control in the GATT to Strengthening WTO Control 138
8 The WTO Dispute Settlement System and the Influence of the Decision-Making Instances of the Dispute Settlement Body 143
8.1 The Increased Legalness of the Rules Under the Dispute Settlement Understanding 143
8.2 The Dispute Settlement Body: The Panels and the Appellate Body 145
8.3 The Appellate Body and Its Working Procedures: Strengthening the Legal Control of the WTO 148
8.4 The Authority of the Decision-Making Discourse of the Appellate Body 150
Part IV The WTO Decision-Making Discourse: the Linguistic Context in the Decision-Making Discourse of the Appellate Body 153
9 The Choice of Meaning in Discourse 155
9.1 Sign-Function: Denotation and Connotation 155
9.2 Unlimited Semiosis Versus Limits of Interpretation 159
9.3 The Legal Code: Limiting Meaning 164
10 The Authors of Legal-Diplomatic Discourse: Interpreters and Intentions 171
10.1 Author and Reader: Between Empirical and Imagined Subjects 171
10.2 Interpretation: Searching for the Authors Intention 175
10.3 The Ghost of the Interpreter in Defining the Meaning of Norms 179
10.4 Interpretation as the Search for Intentio Operis: An Equidistant Method Between Intentio Auctoris and Intentio Lectoris 181
11 The Decision-Making Discourse of the Appellate Body: Treaties and Dictionaries as Referents 187
11.1 Resorting to the Vienna Convention and the Prevalence of Ordinary Meaning 187
11.2 English-Language Based Dictionarization of the Decision-Making Discourse of the Appellate Body 193
11.3 Sardines, Softwood Lumbers and GSP: Precedents for a Decision-Making Discourse Based on the Three Language Versions of the WTO Agreements 204
11.4 The Challenges of "Looking Beyond" Dictionarization 216
Conclusion 222
List of Sources 226
1. Articles and Monographs 226
2. WTO Reports 237
Index 239
| Erscheint lt. Verlag | 23.10.2010 |
|---|---|
| Reihe/Serie | Law and Philosophy Library | Law and Philosophy Library |
| Zusatzinfo | XXXII, 220 p. |
| Verlagsort | Dordrecht |
| Sprache | englisch |
| Themenwelt | Geisteswissenschaften ► Philosophie ► Sprachphilosophie |
| Geisteswissenschaften ► Sprach- / Literaturwissenschaft ► Sprachwissenschaft | |
| Recht / Steuern ► Allgemeines / Lexika | |
| Recht / Steuern ► EU / Internationales Recht | |
| Schlagworte | Diplomatic negotiations • International Law • International treaty • interpretation of treaties • Law based • Legal cultures • Legal discourse • Legal scholars • Legal Translation • Legitimacy of International Law • Mother tongues • Mu • Multilegal-system • Multilingual scenario • national legal systems • Semiotics of Law • Theoretical thinking • WTO’s Appellate Body |
| ISBN-10 | 90-481-9011-8 / 9048190118 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-90-481-9011-9 / 9789048190119 |
| Haben Sie eine Frage zum Produkt? |
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