Metaphors of the Law: from "the Light" to "the Flame"

Abstract

The paper highlights the main stages of the formation of such a philological and legal phenomenon as a metaphor. From ancient times to the present time, the "metaphorical imperative" has determined the most important aspects of the emerging legal reality. The transfer of meanings in jurisprudence took the form of analogy and the objective influence of symbolization and virtual legal structures.Metaphors were also considered as factors of the formation of legal theories acting as some kind of "preforms". Metaphors did not perceive existing similarities, but they themselves created them. This was their significance as "demiurg tools". Therefore, metaphorical expression produced effects rather than meanings, but meanings leading to change. The birth of a new legal meaning was largely spontaneous and unpredictable: it is known that law enforcement sometimes differs from the original intention of the lawmaker and legislator. For the precise establishment of the content of the law, legal knowledge of its original meaning is also necessary. The hermeneutic problem is to bridge the gap between the law and the incident. A change in the social or political situation should not determine the current law to obsolescence: the inherent irrational elasticity of a legal idea provides a field of action.There are also "resonating" metaphors that induce a large number of implications, stimulating new interpretations that reveal hidden implications. Thus, a certain loss of meaning inevitably takes place.The paper clarifies: in the history of law, the metaphor has gone from mythological and traditional ideas to modern legal fiction and "simulacrum".