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Concepts in LawUnderstanding and Applying Legal Concepts: An Inquiry on Inferential Meaning

Concepts in Law: Understanding and Applying Legal Concepts: An Inquiry on Inferential Meaning [Legal concepts are typically encountered in the context of legal norms, and the issue of determining their content cannot be separated from the issue of identifying and interpreting (or constructing) the norms in which they occur, and of using such norms in legal inference. Consequently, it can be argued that a legal system endows its concepts with meaning exactly by embedding such concepts (the terms expressing them) within certain legal norms. Rather than assuming that legal terms have a prior independent meaning, according to which we should determine the meaning of the norms containing them, we should focus on the norms containing such terms and on the inferences they enable, and consequently determine the conceptual contents that such terms are meant to convey. This is particularly the case for the so-called ‘intermediate legal concepts,’ namely, those concepts through which legal norms convey both legal consequences and preconditions of further legal effects, as we shall see in the following. These are indeed the concepts whose semantics we want to investigate, and to which we shall refer when speaking of ‘legal concepts’ tout court.] http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png

Concepts in LawUnderstanding and Applying Legal Concepts: An Inquiry on Inferential Meaning

Part of the Law and Philosophy Library Book Series (volume 88)
Editors: Hage, Jaap C.; von der Pfordten, Dietmar
Sartor, Giovanni
Concepts in Law — Jan 1, 2009
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19 pages

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Publisher
Springer Netherlands
Copyright
© Springer Netherlands 2009
ISBN
978-90-481-2981-2
Pages
35 –54
DOI
10.1007/978-90-481-2982-9_3
Publisher site
See Chapter on Publisher Site

Abstract

[Legal concepts are typically encountered in the context of legal norms, and the issue of determining their content cannot be separated from the issue of identifying and interpreting (or constructing) the norms in which they occur, and of using such norms in legal inference. Consequently, it can be argued that a legal system endows its concepts with meaning exactly by embedding such concepts (the terms expressing them) within certain legal norms. Rather than assuming that legal terms have a prior independent meaning, according to which we should determine the meaning of the norms containing them, we should focus on the norms containing such terms and on the inferences they enable, and consequently determine the conceptual contents that such terms are meant to convey. This is particularly the case for the so-called ‘intermediate legal concepts,’ namely, those concepts through which legal norms convey both legal consequences and preconditions of further legal effects, as we shall see in the following. These are indeed the concepts whose semantics we want to investigate, and to which we shall refer when speaking of ‘legal concepts’ tout court.]

Published: Jan 1, 2009

Keywords: Legal System; Legal Norm; Legal Concept; European Contract; Marriage Ceremony

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