La comprensibilitat de les lleis: un problema jurídic des del punt de vista lingüístic

Resum

In the present article, the author discusses the limitations of linguistics in the task of making the comprehension of laws easier. In order to do this, he first presents some linguistic theses that show the close relation that exists between the comprehension/interpretation of a text and its referring back to a given base of knowledge shared by the individual interpreting of it. It also describes four dilemmas that appear in any attempt to encourage the comprehensibility of a text: the dilemma of semantic specification, that of interpretative specification, that of the specification of those to whom the text is addressed and that of functional specification. Then, the author puts forward some of the traits of the juridical language that complicate the task of improving the comprehensibility of laws. The institutionality of such specialized language determines that its concepts and meanings are not univocal and precise, but rather, that they become spaces of complex knowledge fixated within limits determined by a praxis of interpretation based on the history of preceding interpretations (dogmatic). In order to understand/interpret a juridical norm, it is thus necessary to previously acquire such specialized knowledge. Afterwards, the author deals with two approaches to linguistic work with a text in order to improve its comprehensibility. Last, in regard to the existence of specific techniques that could be made more general, the author only proposes those based on avoiding linguistic formulations that make the comprehension more difficult (in the field of propositional semantics or syntax), given the fact that the introduction of cognitive elements in the text in order to broaden its base of knowledge (in the field of lexical semantics)always prompts new difficulties in comprehension.