The aim of this paper is to ofter a general view of the development of the issue about judicial reasoning and argumentation in Europe. I start with a mention to the methodological problem in law, and after that I expose the main models about the so called “legal argumentation theories”. Thirdly, I bring out some general thesis about judicial reasoning, and finally I propose some critical reflections about those theories.

The aim of this paper is to account for the indeterminacy of legal texts brought about by the peculiarities of the language in which they are formulated. From the start, I asume that legal language is a special language, that is, it is an ordinary language with some specific semantical features. On this assumption, the semantical features of legal texts and the syntactycal ones are dealt with separately. In this account, however, I omit the pragmatical function of such language. Concerning (...) the semantical features that give rise to indeterminacy, I deal on the one hand, with the problems raised from legal terms in general, and the other hand, with the problems raised from terms expressing deontic relations at their deep structure. To conclude, an analysis of ambiguity derived from the syntactycal structure of legal sentences is proposed, on the basis of several exampIes. (shrink)

The aim of this paper is to account for the indeterminacy of legal texts brought about by the peculiarities of the language in which they are formulated. From the start, I asume that legal language is a special language, that is, it is an ordinary language with some specific semantical features. On this assumption, the semantical features of legal texts and the syntactycal ones are dealt with separately. In this account, however, I omit the pragmatical function of such language. Concerning (...) the semantical features that give rise to indeterminacy, I deal on the one hand, with the problems raised from legal terms in general, and the other hand, with the problems raised from terms expressing deontic relations at their deep structure. To conclude, an analysis of ambiguity derived from the syntactycal structure of legal sentences is proposed, on the basis of several exampIes. (shrink)

The aim of this paper is to account for the indeterminacy of legal texts brought about by the peculiarities of the language in which they are formulated. From the start, I asume that legal language is a special language, that is, it is an ordinary language with some specific semantical features. On this assumption, the semantical features of legal texts and the syntactycal ones are dealt with separately. In this account, however, I omit the pragmatical function of such language. Concerning (...) the semantical features that give rise to indeterminacy, I deal on the one hand, with the problems raised from legal terms in general, and the other hand, with the problems raised from terms expressing deontic relations at their deep structure. To conclude, an analysis of ambiguity derived from the syntactycal structure of legal sentences is proposed, on the basis of several exampIes. (shrink)

Una de las cuestiones a que se enfrenta la teoría de la argumentación jurídica, y a la que se dedica este trabajo, es poner de relieve el papel que las valoraciones tienen en el proceso de aplicación del derecho. Las razones valorativas juegan un papel más importante que el que la concepción positivista del derecho suele advertir. En muchos casos las decisiones judiciales no pueden justificarse en el propio derecho, sino en valoraciones ajenas al mismo. Esto no debe significar que, (...) en este ámbito, aquellas sean necesariamente arbitrarias, pero sí discrecionales, lo que conlleva que deben establecerse algunos criterios de racionalidad; criterios que no son ya jurídicos, sino de carácter moral o ético. (shrink)

The aim of this paper is to account for the indeterminacy of legal texts brought about by the peculiarities of the language in which they are formulated. From the start, I asume that legal language is a special language, that is, it is an ordinary language with some specific semantical features. On this assumption, the semantical features of legal texts and the syntactycal ones are dealt with separately. In this account, however, I omit the pragmatical function of such language. Concerning (...) the semantical features that give rise to indeterminacy, I deal on the one hand, with the problems raised from legal terms in general, and the other hand, with the problems raised from terms expressing deontic relations at their deep structure. To conclude, an analysis of ambiguity derived from the syntactycal structure of legal sentences is proposed, on the basis of several exampIes. (shrink)