Präzision versus Vagheit

Das Dilemma der Rechtssprache im Lichte von Rechtsvergleich und Sprachvergleich

Reiner Arntz | University of Hildesheim, Germany

Peter Sandrini | University of Innsbruck, Austria

The tension between precision and indeterminacy is an intrinsic feature of legal language. Specialist communication, and legal language has to be regarded as such, aims at utmost precision to avoid any form of ambiguity. On the other hand, laws and statutes define general rules for citizens and must be comprehensible to all. Moreover, they have to be adapted to changing social realities. All this leads to varying degrees of indeterminacy in the different legal systems. The paper describes indeterminacy in legal language and proposes ways to handle this problem in order to improve the management of multilingual terminology as well as to optimise the translation of legal texts. An adapted terminographical methodology based on the principles of comparative law helps to overcome the lack of equivalence between concepts from different legal systems. Another important issue is the harmonisation of the law which implies a harmonisation of legal concepts and eventually a harmonisation of terms.

Keywords: indeterminacy, legal language, legal terminology, legal translation, multilingual legal texts

Published online: 09 May 2007
https://doi.org/10.1075/tlrp.8.14arn

Cited by

Cited by 2 other publications

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2017. In New Insights into the Semantics of Legal Concepts and the Legal Dictionary [Terminology and Lexicography Research and Practice, 17],

ten Hacken, Pius

2010. Creating Legal Terms: A Linguistic Perspective. International Journal for the Semiotics of Law - Revue internationale de Sémiotique juridique 23:4 ► pp. 407 ff.

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