Metodo

International Studies in Phenomenology and Philosophy

Series | Book | Chapter

213515

Implicatures within the legal context

a rule-based analysis of the possible content of conversational maxims in law

Izabela Skoczeń

pp. 351-362

Abstract

In the present paper, I will provide an account of general-pragmatic theories, such as Grice's theory or "relevance theory". Secondly, I will detail the insufficiency of "relevance theory" in defining the content of maxims within the legal context. The accounts of possible maxims' content in law tend to treat the subject in a strictly Gricean way. They neglect other theories in modern linguistics or philosophy of language. However, it appears that neither of these theories can provide us with a sufficient vision of legal maxims. Although there exist some similarities between the ordinary and legal speech, I will provide for differences which render them two almost incompatible projects. The relevance-theoretic approach appears only fairly narrowly applicable to the realm of law, as its basic assumption of increasing effect while decreasing effort is a flawed statement in the legal domain. Legislative speech is a collective speech act, while the analytical tools developed in Sperber and Wilson's theory are designed to explain individual speech. The fact, that an interpretation is easily accessible does not make it automatically more relevant in law. However, intentions are a central notion in the legal discourse. The communicative intention defined by Sperber and Wilson is an adequate reformulation of the legislator's will to convey a normative content of its propositions. Nevertheless, neither the content of maxims defined by Grice, nor by Sperber and Wilson, provide a fully adequate account of what their content in law could be. There remains a need to search for a more exact theory.

Publication details

Published in:

Araszkiewicz Michał, Banaś Paweł, Gizbert-Studnicki Tomasz, Płeszka Krzysztof (2015) Problems of normativity, rules and rule-following. Dordrecht, Springer.

Pages: 351-362

DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-09375-8_26

Full citation:

Skoczeń Izabela (2015) „Implicatures within the legal context: a rule-based analysis of the possible content of conversational maxims in law“, In: M. Araszkiewicz, P. Banaś, T. Gizbert-Studnicki & K. Płeszka (eds.), Problems of normativity, rules and rule-following, Dordrecht, Springer, 351–362.