The Use of Language Corpora in Legal Interpretation

GLOGAR, Ondřej. The Use of Language Corpora in Legal Interpretation. In 23rd International Roundtable for the Semiotics of Law. 2023.

Basic information

• Original name: The Use of Language Corpora in Legal Interpretation
• Name in Czech: Užití jazykových korpusů při právní interpretaci
• Authors: GLOGAR, Ondřej.
• Edition: 23rd International Roundtable for the Semiotics of Law, 2023.

Other information

• Original language: English
• Type of outcome: Presentations at conferences
• Field of Study: 50500 5.5 Law
• Country of publisher: Italy
• Confidentiality degree: is not subject to a state or trade secret
• Organization unit: Faculty of Law
• Keywords (in Czech): interpretace práva; jazykový korpus; právní jazyk; běžný význam
• Keywords in English: legal interpretation, language corpus, legal language, ordinary meaning
• Tags: International impact

Abstract

In my paper I discuss the use of language corpora and how they can help in creating (finding) word meanings in the interpretation of legal texts. A language corpus comprises large amounts of linguistic data collected in such a way that it can be easily searched using certain software and hypotheses about linguistic phenomena can be tested (Mouristen 2010). This vast amount of data captures language in its actual use by language speakers (in everyday communication - whether written or spoken). In addition, it also allows us to examine the context in which the relevant words are used, which can also provide evidence of their meaning (Solan & Gales 2017). Because the corpus captures the reality of language at a particular time, it allows the study of language as a dynamic phenomenon (changing both in time and space, i.e. across cultures as well). Nevertheless, this tool is rather neglected in the interpretation of law and the possibilities it offers are not exploited. Based on these premises, I aim to analyse the judicial practice in my paper (on the example of the decisions of the Czech courts) and how judges search for the meaning of terms and whether they really reflect the linguistic reality. The results show that although courts emphasize interpretation in light of the ordinary meaning when interpreting legal documents, they often rely only on their own linguistic intuition. On these grounds, I suggest the use of language corpora as a way to get closer to the real ‘ordinary meaning’.

Links

• MUNI/A/1300/2022, interní kód MU: Name: Konstrukce významu v právu

Investor: Masaryk University, Construction of meaning in law