Dietrich Busse - Concept types and frames in German statutory law

In this talk, the analysis of frame-structure is applied to the semantic description, interpretation and use of German legal terms, taken as a special case of highly complex professional terms and concepts. It is argued that frame-semantic methods are suitable to describe and analyze semantic and conceptual relations in the semantics of law far more precisely than by the classical hermeneutical methods used until now in the German jurisprudence (law science and practice). The analysis starts from complete paragraphs in statutory (i.e. written) law. The frame-structure of such sections (in most cases single complex sentences) will be the basis for the analysis and description of the semantic potential of the concepts involved. It is a characteristic feature of the semantic structure of statutory law sections in German law and of the central concepts that build it, that this structure is not accessible alone by the concepts being verbalised (verbally expressed) in the text itself. Instead one has to concede, that crucial semantic aspects are only accessible by terms (and concepts) invented on a second, third, and so on, level of professional interpretation, these concepts not being part of the wording of the law text itself. E.g. concerning the interpretation of the concept “Diebstahl [theft]” in the German Criminal Law Codex [StGB] section § 242 the law-term “wegnimmt [takes away]” – in the usual interpretation nominalized to “Wegnahme [taking away]” – will be interpreted by means of the explicative term “Bruch des Gewahrsams [break-ing of safe-keeping]”, being itself explicated by means of the term “tatsächliche Sachherrschaft [actual control of the thing]”. There is good reason to suppose that legal terms are to some extent relational and functional concepts; this assumption follows from the high proportion of nominalizations in the German legal and statutory language. The analysis of the legal terms and concepts used for the interpretation of a statutory law section (independent of the question whether they are expressed verbally in the text or are implied in the canonical interpretation in commentaries, written court-decisions, and academic literature) follows the assumption, that every single semantic item being relevant for the adequate interpretation and application of a law term (every meaning-relevant “concept” in the terminology of Barsalou) can for itself be analyzed as a sub-frame (attribute-value-structure). Via predicate-types, argument-types, values and constraints the semantic structures even of semantically and epistemically highly complex professional concepts can be analyzed precisely. Referring to the up to a high degree complex and difficult semantics of professional legal terms (and especially the texts of statutory law) a frame-semantic approach shows many advantages compared with the more intuitive-hermeneutic methods applied in legal interpretation nowadays. By means of a frame-related abstract format of description it will be possible to uncover relations and structures within the meaning-relevant knowledge (and concept-system) and to describe them precisely with respect to their interrelations, interactions, and “embeddings”. A formalized method of description for the concept structure that builds the basis of the semantics of central legal terms allows a better cross-linguistic comparison of linguistic concepts.