Legal Language, Legal Hermeneutics, and the Legitimacy of Legal Decisions
The judicial decision is now an irrefutable part in the construction of any legal order. The project aimed at reflecting on the linguistic and hermeneutic dimensions of the judicial decision as grounding its potentially discretionary nature. The project also sought to assess the scope of this discretionary power – and the language in which it is embedded, balancing the needs for public intelligibility with those of professional and scientific accuracy – in the context of our current democratic states, under the rule of law, and within legislative frameworks which are due to operate in dynamic and multicultural societies. The question of the legitimacy of this judiciary has also been examined, in particular through the obligation to state reasons for decisions, both in factual and legal terms, and through the analysis of the role played in this field by different notions of truth, factual and semantic determinability, or normative and discursive rationality.
Duration: 2018-2022.
Co-PI: Maria Clara Calheiros
Team: Ana Beatriz Silva Faria, Ana Carolina Trindade Cohen, Clementino Tiago Balsa, José Carlos Velho,Miriam Rocha, Ricardo Macedo Menna Barreto, Sofia Crista Marques, Thiago Coutinho de Oliveira.
JusGov Research Groups: JusLab