Why do pragmatics matter in the legal framework?

Grice founded his theory on the assumption that the speaker conveys not only what he says, but also what he pragmatically implicates. This is possible because of the context shared by the utterer and the hearer as well as some common rule-like assumptions called maxims of conversation. Grice’s theory concentrated on a communication oriented at the exchange of information between speaker and hearer. The main objections against it were that it is narrow, as the in- formatively oriented communication occurs rarely in human interactions. Consequently, the content of maxims as designed by Grice could not apply in many legal contexts. This paper aims at considering only one of the multiple contexts in the realm of law – the relations between the legislature and the judicial powers.

Bibliogr. s. 64