engleski

How Terminology Studies can Contribute to Legal Interpretation

On Urban Dictionary.com, a popular website on language usage, the word truth has 41 definitions. In contrast, the word truth is interpreted far more restrictive in law. For example, in defamation law, which aims to protect the reputational interests of persons and corporations, truth is an effective defence to a defamation charge. In other words, the truth of a statement or publication protects the defendant from liability. Therefore, in such cases, national courts interpret truth according to its specific legal meaning irrespective of its meanings in general language usage. Similarly, courts such as the Court of Justice of the European Union and the European Court of Human Rights often use the teleological method of interpretation which goes beyond the wording of a provision, giving more weight to extralinguistic factors such as purpose and context. Such interpretation underlines the conceptual autonomy that is instrumental for the uniform application of law in multinational and multilingual legal orders. At the same time, the teleological method of interpretation emphasizes the importance of conceptual structure for the meaning of a concept. The latter assumption lies at the heart of the cognitive approach to terminology, in which concepts are best understood and described as parts of a wider conceptual structure. Against this background it is argued that an interdisciplinary approach based on legal and state-of-the-art linguistic theories sheds new light on legal interpretation, thus warranting the application of principles of terminology studies in the field of law.

legal interpretation; legal concepts; terminology studies

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