Language as a means of law expressing: theoretical principles

Abstract

Purpose. The purpose of the paper is to formulate the theoretical foundations of the usage of the language as the main means of the law expression. Methodics. The methodics involves a comprehensive analysis and generalization of the available regulatory material and scientific positions and the formulation of the relevant problematic aspects of the law language because, it is based on the language of everyday communication, but at the same time it serves certain business purposes. During the research the following methods of scientific cognition were used: dialectical, hermeneutic, historical-legal, systemic and formal-legal one. These methods allow form the theoretical foundations of the language as a means of the law expression. Results. In the course of the research it has been stated that the language of the law is a system in which language is a means of the realization of all spheres of the social life, including the legal one, because the legal reality as a reflection of reality is inconceivable without the language. The former is the material carrier of the subject. Without language, all the factors common in the legal literature will remain far from reality, as they will not reflect modern socio-cultural processes. It is determined that traditionally the language of law is perceived as no more than a means of communicating legal information to the addressee. However, it is a more complex phenomenon than just a means of transmitting information. In general, language is the only way to access mental processes: it captures the experience of mankind, its thinking and, as a consequence, language is a mechanism of cognition. At the same time, legal language, “serving” the legal life of society with its resources, becomes it’s kind of cognitive reflection. Scientific novelty. In the course of the research the problematic aspects of the functioning of the language of law in the general language system have been established as socially and historically conditioned system of ways and rules of verbal expression of concepts and categories, developed and used to regulate the relationship of subjects in the legal life of society. Practical importance. The results of the study can be used to improve the mechanism of the application of the language of law in law-making, law-interpreting, law enforcement spheres.