EU Law and Semiotics

The European Union is one of the ‘big ideas’ of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries and has been built on the idea of the European Community, which it supersedes. Seen in this light the emergent law of the European Union is becoming omnipresent in so many ways and yet it does not appear to have been the subject of as much semiotic study as it deserves. This paper takes a multilingual stance and explores emerging EC and EU law from a perspective of a lawyer-linguist practitioner in the field. The purpose is to describe a range of practitioner ‘realities’ and to explore how semiotics provides a tool for analysis and insights for a better understanding and awareness of EU law, with particular emphasis on the legislative, or law-making aspects.     

Beyond Peirce: The New Science of Semiotics and the Semiotics of Law

This paper shows how Peirce's semeiotic could be turned into a powerful science. The New Science of Semiotics provides not only a new paradigm and an empirical justification for all these applications, but also a rational and systematic procedure for carrying them out as well. Thus the New Science of Semiotics transforms the philosophy of law into the science of legal scholarship, the discipline that I call jurisology.

The Semiotics of Memes in the Law: Jack Balkin’s Promise of Legal Semiotics

The jurisprudent Jack M. Balkin introduced the analogy of memes as a semiotic device for understanding the law. His notion of cultural software into which this device was inserted is developed first, followed by a development of memetic analysis and its several semiotic dimensions. After a brief treatment of the position of ideology in view of memetic analysis, and the corresponding notion of transcendence, Balkin’s explicitly semiotic setting for this doctrine is displayed. This method is then briefly applied to the civilian doctrine of patrimony, to supplement Balkin’s application of it to common law institutions.     

Law and Market Economy: The Triadic Linking of Law,Economics, and Semiotics

International Journal for the Semiotics of Law - Revue internationale de Sémiotique juridique -     

Armed Conflicts,Images of Law and Legal Semiotics

International Journal for the Semiotics of Law - Revue internationale de Sémiotique juridique -     

Semiotics and the Spectacle of Transformation in Copyright Law

Copyright law is often premised on the identification of an author of a literary, dramatic, musical, or artistic work, and then giving this author exclusive rights for a limited period to control the commercial exploitation of his or her intellectual creation. However, the hegemonic modernist position of the romantic authorial text has been challenged by numerous scholars who have argued that the meaning of a text lies not in its origin but in its destination. Roland Barthes’ work, controversial at the time of publication with its assault on modernity and the primacy of authorial control, has nonetheless laid the groundwork for an important body of scholarship on interpretive communities. Whether one adopts the position of neoconservative postmodernism or poststructural postmodernism, this article argues that a semiotic analysis of works of copyright as “signs”, “myths” and “polysemous texts” will nonetheless offer an important framework to understand the full reach of the transformative use doctrine in the United States today.     

Millennium Reflections: Roberta Kevelson and the Law and Semiotics Round Table

International Journal for the Semiotics of Law - Revue internationale de Sémiotique juridique -     

《中华人民共和国港口法》述评

本文详细阐述了十届全国人大常委会第 3次会议于 2 0 0 3年 6月 2 8日通过的《港口法》的制定背景、起草过程和基本内容。     

商标五分法的法学与符号学分析

所谓商标五分,是指按照是否具备显著性以及显著性强弱将各种标志划分为臆造商标、随意商标、暗示商标、描述性词汇和通用名称五种类型.     

Great Expectations: AI and Law as an Issue for Legal Semiotics

Trying to build computerprograms that can assist the practicing lawyerin solving concrete cases is scientificallychallenging and financially attractive. So far,the practical results of such endeavors arerather modest, but that may change. This paperexamines the possible impact in the future ofadvanced advisory software on the semantics andpragmatics of law. Two kinds of computerprograms are discussed, viz., expertsystems and dialogue models. It is argued thatsuch systems may affect adjudication in someimportant ways, and that jurists shouldtherefore develop a more critical attitudetoward the use of such systems. Furthermore, itis argued that the widespread idea that the useof computers leads to more objectivity is onthe whole mistaken. As to the role of computersin legal decision making, the final question isnot: can they do it? But: do we want to let them doit? All this does not mean, however, thatjurists should turn away from ArtificialIntelligence and Law. On the contrary,developments in that field can be highlystimulating for legal theory and legal semiotics.     

新人文主义民法哲学和家庭法哲学述评

作为部门法哲学的民法哲学和亚部门法哲学的家庭法哲学在晚近获得了长足的发展,新人文主义思潮在其中尤为独树一帜.新人文主义民法哲学主张主观诚信与客观诚信之统一、平等原则非民法基本原则和民法的公私法混合性,新人文主义家庭法哲学主张家庭关系的屈从性,包括夫妻关系的相对屈从和亲子关系的绝对屈从.无论是新人文主义民法哲学还是作为其组成部分的家庭法哲学,它们的最终目的都是为了实现民法对人的回归和对弱者予以保护.新人文主义民法哲学和家庭法哲学透射了社会变迁中的私法研究范式转变,其价值取向是正义.     

Family Law and Social Law: Reciprocal Dependency in a Comparative Perspective

This article examines aspects of the relationship between sociallaw and family law in Sweden, Norway and Great Britain. It considershow family law provisions can affect the distribution of publicfinancial support, and also the way systems of public financialsupport can affect families.     

读周枏先生《罗马法原论》札记

周枏先生去世时,我曾写了“带走一个时代的法学家”以寄追思。为什么这样说？因为他的人品、学品和命运在某种程度上浓缩了一个时代的众多法学家的个性特征、学术生涯和人生追求。无论是其人品学品,还是其生涯命运,都有时代的印痕。现今我们所处的时代,即使有人想去追求,已经很难产生、锻造周枏先生这样的学者了。这就是时代的不可抗力,它既可带给人们光辉与希望,也可给人造成黯淡和神伤。所幸的是,一种纯净的人品和精深的学品总能给人以激励和向往。周枏的《罗马法原论》（以下简称《原论》）就是这样一部体现了作者学品,并且给人以激励,为后来者奠基的著作,这是他留给后人的丰厚遗产。这个遗产既是一种已然的学品,又是当今学人应行仿效的楷模,也为将来的学术树立起了准衡。周枏先生去世带走了一个时代的另一层含义,是说作为老一辈学者,他其实是前一个时代的罗马法学者在后一个时代的仅存。从20世纪初以来至今,中国的罗马法学著作可以说并不少,除译著外,中国学者自己的著述也有十四五种之多。这些著作在不同时期,不同地区都发生过相当的影响。其中影响较为持久广泛的当属黄右昌的《罗马法与现代》、陈朝璧的《罗马法原理》以及改革开放以后在中国大陆出版的周枏、吴文翰、谢邦宇的《罗马法》（群众出版社,1983）和江平、米健的《罗马法基础》（中国政法大学出版社,1987）。从时间上看,虽然《原论》1994年才问世,但在此之前,像《原论》这样系统全面、深入具体、资料翔实的中文罗马法专著还不曾有过。这部著作是周枏倾其一生精力与心血的巨制大作,是他一生学术积累和造诣的集中体现。此前已有的任何一部罗马法著作,都没有像《原论》这样做了几十年的酝酿和准备,融入了几十年的学术探讨与教学积累。仅此而言,《原论》可谓对其他既有罗马法学著作的超越,是中国罗马法学近乎一个世纪的集成。正因如此,该书出版之后,受到了学界的广泛关注和欢迎。到2004年4月,该书已经五次印刷。这在同类学术著作中,无疑独享殊荣。在此意义上,完全可以说斯人已逝而不去,学品无声得永生。这就是一个学者的价值,无论他生存时曾否得意辉煌,或者曾有多少失意怅惘。从《原论》中我们可以看到哪些学品呢？     

Emotion and the Law: A Framework for Inquiry

This paper draws on research in social and cognitive psychology to show how theories of judgment and decision making that incorporate decision makers' affective responses apply to legal contexts. It takes 2 widely used models of decision making, the rational actor and lens models, and illustrates their utility for understanding legal judgments by using them to interpret research findings on juror decision making, people's obedience to the law (e.g., paying taxes), and eyewitness memory. The paper concludes with a discussion of the advantages of modifying existing approaches to information processing to include the influence of affect on how legal actors reach judgments about law and legal process.