The Issue

Legal reasoning is a linguistic activity which has a legal concern. Because there is an audience for this linguistic activity - several speakers and listeners are involved - we call it legal discourse. We can distinguish different types of legal discourse. Discussions in legal science (legal dogmatics); Judicial deliberation; Debates in courts of law; Legislative treatment of legal questions (in legislatures themselves or before commissions or committees); Discussions of legal questions among jurists or lawyers or ...