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Part of
Handbook of Terminology: Volume 3. Legal Terminology
Edited by Łucja Biel and Hendrik J. Kockaert
[Handbook of Terminology 3] 2023
► pp. 310–326

Legal terms, concepts and definitions in the transposition of EU law

| Kozminski University

Definitions play an important role in national and EU legal acts. This paper tackles the role of definitions in the transposition process during which national legislation is drafted to achieve the results described in EU directives. Seven models of term/concept transfer from EU law into national law are indicated. The analysis of the models, based on the implementation of directives into Polish law, reveals that the transposition of a term, concept, and its definition into national law is not the only possible scenario applied in national legislation. The chapter explains how national drafters modify a term, concept or definition and why they decide to omit the EU term, concept or definition in national legal acts.

Keywords: EU legal terminology, legal concept, definitions, transposition of EU law, legislative drafting
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Term and concept relations
  • 3.The role of definitions in EU and Polish legislation
  • 4.The role of definitions in the transposition of EU directives into national systems
  • 5.Conclusions
  • Notes
  • References
Available under the Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives (CC BY-ND) 4.0 license.

For any use beyond this license, please contact the publisher at [email protected].

Published online: 1 December 2023
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/hot.3.leg3
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