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Sprache des Rechts. Vermitteln, Verstehen, Verwechseln

2000; J.B. Metzler; Volume: 30; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1007/bf03379222

2365-953X

Wolfgang Klein, Berliner Arbeitsgruppe,

linguistics and terminology studies

This paper describes a large interdisciplinary project on the language of legal texts presently undertaken at the Berlin-Brandenburgischen Akademie der Wissenschaften. Its focus is on comprehensibility of legal texts and on variation in their understanding across different groups of addressees. In two ways, it differs from most research in this important but difficult area. First, it brings together legal and linguistic experts, and second, it is strictly empirical. A first subproject deals with various attempts to reformule and to rephrase the Burgerliche Gesetzbuch and other laws related to it, such as the Zivilgesetzbuch der DDR. A second subproject is devoted to specific linguistic phenomena which often give rise to differences and problems of interpretation, such as scope, anaphoricity or the meaning of modal constructions. A third subproject addresses two issues: the requirement of ›transparency‹ in insurance contracts and similar texts and the legal protection of registered trade marks.