...employed in the legal language. Write here all the metaphors on law you can think about!
See you
"WHO STOLE THE TARTS?": Alice in Wonderland, Chap. 11
From Arthur Rackham's illustrations (1907) to Lewis Carroll's "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland", 1865
Iscriviti a:
Commenti sul post (Atom)
Introducing his “Cursus der Institutiones” Puchta wrote (I write the following passage in Italian, then I’ll try to explain in English, help me if I’ll fail!):
RispondiElimina“ Se noi conoscessimo il diritto come un semplice aggregato di principi, non sapremmo mai di certa scienza, se ci venne di comprenderlo nella sua estensione.
Come d’un mucchio di pietre può mancare una parte senza che lo spettatore ne avvertisse il difetto, quandochè se fosse ordinato ad edificio, ogni pietra che mancasse si manifesterebbe come un vuoto e sarebbe possibile delinearne esattamente gli angoli.
Ma anche internamente la conoscenza sistematica è la sola compiuta, giacchè il diritto è in se stesso un sistema, e soltanto colui che come tale lo concepisce comprende perfettamente la sua natura.”
Puchta tries to explain his theory about the systematic vision of the Law, which is the only one vision able to understand the legal questions and the legal knowledge at all.
In this passage he compares the systematic knowledge of Law with a building: infact if we have an overview of a whole building we are able to say if there is a stone or not, it will appear as a hole in the building, and certainly we can identify it and also its corners.
Otherwise, if we look at the same stones not from the systematic point of view but if we see and consider stone by stone, we can look only a heap of stones, without being able to understand if some are missing and the link which exist between them.
And this is what happens about the knowledge of Law.
Best Regards,
Flavia Mancini
First of all i want to thank Prof. Watt for the interesting lecture, i admit that the idea of the lawyer as an "architect" is very strange, but fitting!
RispondiEliminaIt has been difficult to find some architectural metaphor used in legal language, and, as i said today (maybe in a little confused way!)the only image metaphorically employed in legal language that came to my mind was the one related to Kelsen’s Theory, that we met when we studied Philosophy of Law.
Kelsen looks to the system of law as a “normative pyramid”, and to the order as a “Stufenbau”, a construction with steps, where each rule must find its validity in accordance with the rule on the superior level. So law's order is formed by different kinds of rules, ordered in a hierarchic structure.
On the top of this pyramid, there is the “Grundnorm”, the fundamental rule that justifies and confers validity to all the rules of the order.
Kelsen also distinguishes between static orders and dynamic orders, each one has a structure with “steps”.
I think that this image of the pyramid could be used also in our order, because we have a fundamental rule, the Constitution (now there is UE legislation)and the constitutional laws on the same level, the ordinary laws on the inferior level, then the regulations, in a hierarchical structure, so that the rule on the upper level takes precedence over the law on the lower level, generally speaking.
I don't know if i'm right or if the example is fitting, but i hope so!
Best regards,
Alessia Guaitoli
The Kelsen "Pyramid" is probably the most istinctive thought about architectural metaphors in the language of law, at least between the subjects we studied!
RispondiEliminaHonestly I can't find some other examples as much fitting.
Anyway, I remember something by our book of (italian) civil procedure: the author - Mandrioli - used a metaphor explaining the invalidity of processual acts: these ones were imagined like parts of a building, from the foundations to the top. If a processual act is not valid, it reverberates its effects on all the other consequential acts depending on it: it happens in the same way as a part of a building collapses after the collapse of a precarious floor/foundation below it.
I know that it's not a general metaphor because it is a specific example, but it's the only other thing I remembered!
Best regards
Alessandro
If I would speak about a famouse metaphor on law, I should speak about the Leviathan written by Thomas Hobbes and published in 1651. The book concerns the structure of society and legitimate government, and is regarded as one of the earliest and most influential examples of social contract theory.
RispondiEliminaBut If I would choose a personal metaphor on law, I would choose the conductore (Un chef d'orchestre in french).
A conductor is someone who leads and guides an orchestra in order to perform a piece to the best of their abilities
The conductor makes sure that the music piece is interpreted properly by acting as the guide to the musicians. He chooses and studies the music score, so that when the music is played, there is unity and harmony.
In my opinion law as a conductor makes order and unity to the music of our society.
All best
Hélène Bellenger
We already dealt with the metaphor of the “pillar”: briefly, the lawyer use it in order to identify the three parts of the European Union. The three pillars support the “tympanum” (another metaphor) of the EU, meaning that the system of EU cannot work if they are too thin or too fat, empty and unable to face hard challenges, or overweighted and unable as well.
RispondiEliminaMoreover, in Italian legal language we often use the word “architecture”, meaning the structure of an article, an act or a decision. According to this point of view, lawyer (legislator or judge) is an architect: he has to know how to build an article, where to put the different commas, what sequence it must follow. It is an hard logical work, because an act has to result intelligible to everybody and it should not let people misunderstand it.
Best
Filippo Mattioli
In our costitution I think there is an article where there is an architectural metaphor of law.
RispondiEliminaThe 29 art says " The Republic acknowledge family's rights as a natural society FOUNDED on the marriage"
this article remind me the idea of a structure or a building (that is the family) that have as basis (in italian we say "fondamenta") the marriage.
Best
Dear all,
RispondiEliminaI really enjoyed all your comments! Puchta's metaphor is really interesting and not very well known, as far as I know. Same thing for Mandrioli's quotation. Kelsen's pyramid is a very widespread metaphor but, exactly for this reason, very important for our course. I would say the same thing for the EU pillars' metaphor. The comments about the general use of the word architecture in legal language and also the art. 29 quotation are appropriate too. About Hélène metaphor, I have to say that I like it, even if it is not an architectural one. Well, I think you are working very well and that Prof. Watt really inspired you. Let's see if someone else is going to contribute too to this debate.
SG
I'd like to continue this interesting debate.
RispondiEliminaI considered the garden as an architectural metaphor, as prof. Watt suggested.
I don't know if it's correct but I take into consideration the parallel between the two different ways to create gardens (the Italian or French style and the English manner) and the legal systems related to these cultures.
The first type, the Italian or French formal garden, is characterized by a great passion for the ars topiaria (that consists in pruning trees and shrubs to give them a geometric form, that is different from the original plant's nature).
The second type, the English garden or English landscape garden, is totally different. Its main feature is the illusory appearance to be a natural and almost wild field. In this garden the ars topiaria is abolished.
Considering this difference I thought about the legal systems. The common law in Great Britain doesn't have a constitution, while Italy and France are two important hinges of the codified law. Also the judges in the common law system have a more discretional role than in civil law countries, this fact make me think that in Great Britain there is an elastic view of the law, that is more practical, more “natural” (referring to the garden's metaphor) and it seems to fix to the reality, to the society better than in Italy.
In our system the law's application is “artificial”, as the gardens inspired to the French or Italian manner, and in that way everything is caged in predefined categories.
Here you are two examples:
The English Grounds of Wörlitz were one of the largest English parks in 18th-century Europe.
http://m.blog.hu/sz/szakitshabirsz/image/0810/Woerlitz5.jpeg
French formal garden in the Loire Valley http://www.biocrawler.com/w/images/c/ca/French_Formal_Garden_in_Loire_Valley.JPG
Sorry I forgot to sign.
RispondiEliminaCamilla Bonadies
In my opinion, the "templum iustitiae" can be considered an architectural metaphor of the lawyer aim still effective. In fact, the allegory of the temple of Justice was very well known by the ones that in the medieval age rediscovered classical themes that concern the law. I think that the meaning of the Justice reflected on the interior vitreous walls of the temple on which the words of the "libri legales" were written in gold can be considered a topical image of what the lawyer should aim for: the pursuit of the Justice inside the words of the law.
RispondiEliminaBest regards,
Valerio
Sincerely, I haven't found any architectural metaphors, but I remember that Professor Watt asked us to find some metaphors about "the garden", referred to law too. I was thinking of the "wild grass" that the man tries to eradicate, although it always reappears. It could be compared both with justice or injustice, in legal systems, that are not absolutely perfect or imoerfect because there is always something out of control that equilibrate situations, in both senses. I don't know if I was quite clear.
RispondiEliminaPaola Federici
Sorry I know that this isn't the rightful place for this item, but I'd like to deal with the stain of blood linked to a legal theme, too.
RispondiEliminaI thought about the “Murder in the cathedral” written by T. S. Eliot in 1935.
This play was composed at the time of rising Fascism in Europe.
It portrays the individual's opposition to authority and it can be seen as a protest to Nazi regime's subversion of the ideals of the Christian Church.
The contrast between civil power and spiritual power is the essential point in the reading of the drama.
Eliot describes the assassination of Archbishop Thomas Becket in Canterbury Cathedral in 1170. After the murder, the knights that killed the archbishop defend their actions saying that the assassination was justified so that the church's power would not undermine stability and state power.
I was impressed by a quotation of this drama: “The land is foul, the water is foul, our beats and ourselves defiled with blood.
Camilla Bonadies
Maybe it isn't appropriate, I don't know, but I found another architectural metaphor that can be interesting for this theme.
RispondiEliminaActually on studying the Roman Law all of us remember the role of the "pontifices" that were part of a college who had to oversee the official religion. On the other hand we should consider that in the past, religion was strictly connected with the law and in fact pontifices were also expression of the powerful aristocratic class that kept the law. For this reason I'd like to focus our attention on the same word "pontifex" because in this same word there is the meaning of this activity that consists in making bridges (pons-facio) between the gods and the men in order to understand the god's will.
Evidently in Rome a pontifex was considered similar to an engineer in making connections... but also the lawyer must make connections between different meanings of the law in order to perform the same law. In this sense I thought of pontifex as an architectural metaphor still effective.
Best,
Valerio
I think there are many architectural metaphors used in legal language. In fact as said Mr. Watt, often metaphors can describe better than other terms the real meaning of the law. For example in Italy, in order to describe the origin of our law, is used the expression "fondamenta del diritto". In fact this term can refer to the roman law(Corpus Juris Civilis for example) that is the basis of the law of many moderns state. So the term "fondamenta", remembering the structure of a building, alludes to the solid bases of our law that must be searched in history and in particular in ancient codifications.
RispondiEliminaI hope I understood the issue..