NCJ Number
125957
Date Published
1988
Length
224 pages
Annotation
This analysis of the processes involved in court adjudication argues that an understanding of linguistic and semantic factors enhances both theoretical accounts of legal phenomena and the observation and description of the phenomena themselves.
Abstract
The author argues that the use of structural semiotics is crucial to analyses of legal procedures. The discussion considers British and American evidentiary processes and focuses on the factors that influence the plausibility of the narrative structures provided in testimony and other courtroom discourse. It also examines the process of applying law to facts, the construction of facts within the courtroom, the assumptions underlying interpretation theory, and other aspects of semiotic approaches to law. The analysis also focuses on criticisms of legal semiotics and on the role of legal semiotics in modern legal philosophy. Footnotes, index, and 221 references.