The Pragmatic Turn in Law

Inference and Interpretation in Legal Discourse

Janet Giltrow, Dieter Stein

$70.95 $60.25

Paperback

Not in-store but you can order this
How long will it take?

Availability Information

We source books from suppliers in Australia and overseas. For books we don't currently have in stock, the time it takes to get them from our suppliers can vary widely - from a few days to a few months - so we check each book with each supplier to determine the expected time it will take to be supplied to us.

We then advise you accordingly. If the time taken to get any book is too long for you, you can let us know and we will cancel or adjust your order, and refund as required.

To find out the anticipated arrival time for specific items prior to ordering, please contact us by phone or email:

Phone +61 2 9264 3111, or 1800 4 BOOKS (1800 4 26657) if outside Sydney:
option 1 Abbey's Bookshop (Crime, History, Science, Kids & more) • info@abbeys.com.au
option 2 Language Book Centre (ESL & Foreign Languages) • language@abbeys.com.au
option 3 Galaxy Bookshop (Sci-fi, Fantasy, Romance, Graphic Novels) • sf@galaxybooks.com.au

QTY:

English

De Gruyter Mouton
08 July 2019

Semantics; Law for the lay person

Series: Mouton Series in Pragmatics [MSP]

"In legal interpretation, where does meaning come from? Law is made from language, yet law, unlike other language-related disciplines, has not so far experienced its ""pragmatic turn"" towards inference and the construction of meaning. This book investigates to what extent a pragmatically based view of l linguistic and legal interpretation can lead to new theoretical views for law and, in addition, to practical consequences in legal decision-making. With its traditional emphasis on the letter of the law and the immutable stability of a text as legal foundation, law has been slow to take the pragmatic perspective: namely, the language-user's experience and activity in making meaning. More accustomed to literal than to pragmatic notions of meaning, that is, in the text rather than constructed by speakers and hearers the disciplines of law may be culturally resistant to the pragmatic turn. By bringing together the different but complementary perspectives of pragmaticians and lawyers, this book addresses the issue of to what extent legal meaning can be productively analysed as deriving from resources beyond the text, beyond the letter of the law. This collection re-visits the feasibility of the notion of literal meaning for legal interpretation and, at the same time, the feasibility of pragmatic meaning for law. Can explications of pragmatic meaning support court actions in the same way concepts of literal meaning have traditionally supported statutory interpretations and court judgements? What are the consequences of a user-based view of language for the law, in both its practices of interpretation and its definition of itself as a field? Readers will find in this collection means of approaching such questions, and promising routes for inquiry into the genre- and field-specific characteristics of inference in law. In many respects, the problem of literal vs. pragmatic meaning confined to the text vs. reaching beyond it will appear to parallel the dichotomy in law between textualism and intentionalism. There are indeed illuminating connections between the pair of linguistic terms and the more publicly controversial legal ones. But the parallel is not exact, and the linguistic dichotomy is in any case anterior to the legal one. Even as linguistic-pragmatic investigation may serve legal domains, the legal questions themselves point back to central conditions of all linguistic meaning."

Edited by: Janet Giltrow, Dieter Stein
Imprint: De Gruyter Mouton
Country of Publication: United States
Volume: 18
Dimensions: Height: 234mm, Width: 156mm, Spine: 22mm
Weight: 726g
ISBN: 9781501518942
ISBN 10: 1501518941
Series: Mouton Series in Pragmatics [MSP]
Pages: 373
Publication Date: 08 July 2019
Audience: Professional and scholarly , Undergraduate , Undergraduate
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Dieter A. Stein, Heinrich-Heine-Universitaet Duesseldorf, Germany; Janet Giltrow, University of British Columbia, Canada

Reviews for The Pragmatic Turn in Law: Inference and Interpretation in Legal Discourse

The legal mosaic from different cultures offered in the volume does not give an impression of an incoherent mixture. Rather, it forms a multifaceted picture and assists readers in understanding theoretical and conceptual issues that are culture-independent. [...] Therefore, the book can gain international readership, including legal linguists, discourse analysts, legal practitioners and legal philosophers. Tatiana Dubrovskaya in: Discourse Studies 20(5) (2018), 688-699