Jan M. Broekman – författare

Originally published in English in 1984, this collection of essays documents a dialogue between phenomenology and Marxism, with the contributors representing a cross-section from the two traditions. The theoretical and historical presuppositions of the phenomenology inaugurated by Husserl are very different from those of the much older Marxist tradition, yet, as these essays show, there are definite points of contact, communication and exchange between the two traditions.

Originally published in English in 1984, this collection of essays documents a dialogue between phenomenology and Marxism, with the contributors representing a cross-section from the two traditions. The theoretical and historical presuppositions of the phenomenology inaugurated by Husserl are very different from those of the much older Marxist tradition, yet, as these essays show, there are definite points of contact, communication and exchange between the two traditions.

Conversation and argument concerning laws and legal situations take place throughout society and at all levels, yet the language of these conversations differs greatly from that of the courtroom. This insightful book considers the gap between everyday discussion about law and the artificial, technical language developed by lawyers, judges and other legal specialists. In doing so, it explores the intriguing possibilities for future synthesis, a problem often neglected by legal theory. Analyzing the major components of law and legal procedure across both common and civil law, this book reveals how legal conversation on the `street' contributes to our understanding of law as well as our democratic citizenship. Jan M. Broekman and Frank Fleerackers consider the impact of multiculturalism and the threat of terror on our impressions of legal conversation and the importance we place upon it, arguing that anarchism and legalism are hostile neighbors sharing many themes and motives. Exploring the meaning and sense of the concept of `street' in ancient and modern times, the authors pose the question: is law just a discourse or should it be classified as one of the major narratives in human life? Unique and discerning, this book will appeal to anyone interested in the language of law. Legal educators will find their scope broadened whilst researchers, activists and politicians will find themselves captivated by the focus on social activism and citizen motivation.

The 'law-language-law' theme is deeply engraved in Occidental culture, more so than contemporary studies on the subject currently illustrate. This insightful book creates awareness of these cultural roots and shows how language and themes in law can be richer than studying a simple mutuality of motives. Focusing on the multilevel phenomenon of 'speech', Jan M. Broekman explores the history of this theme, from the West-European Middle Ages, through to today s globalization. Existing philosophical concepts are studied for their views on 'alter', other and otherness in speech, alongside scientific approaches including 'semiotics', 'structuralism' and, in particular, 'legal consciousness'. This state-of-the-art book unveils today s problems with the two faces of language: the analog and the digital, on the basis of which our smart phones and Artificial Intelligence create modern life. Innovative and explorative, Rethinking Law and Language will be of value to law scholars, social scientists and psychologists alike. The investigation of professional language and the impact of digital communication on social relations will also appeal to judges and other officials as well as politicians

This book highlights how conversion via communication is one of the most important issues in legal thinking. But a jurist will not solely master specific social behaviors or become the manager of large-scale political fields of law as a legal scientist.

Its cultural background is in this book named ‘the New Plural’: a worldview based on combinations of Analog, Digital, AI and Quantum understandings of reality.The New Plural, combined with in-depth observations on the Subject in new forms of knowledge formation, forms the background theme of the book.

Its cultural background is in this book named ‘the New Plural’: a worldview based on combinations of Analog, Digital, AI and Quantum understandings of reality.The New Plural, combined with in-depth observations on the Subject in new forms of knowledge formation, forms the background theme of the book.

This volume provides a critical roadmap through the major historical sources of legal semiotics as we know them today. The history of legal semiotics, now at least a century old, has never been written (a non-event itself pregnant with semiotic possibility).  As a consequence, its sources are seldom clearly exposed and, as word, object and meaning change, are sometimes lost. They reach from an English translation of the 1916 inaugural lecture of the first Chair in Legal Significs at the Amsterdam University, via mid 20th century studies on “property” or “contract,” to equally fascinating essays on contemporary semiotic problems produced by former students of the Roberta Kevelson Semiotics Roundtable Seminar at Penn State University 2012 and 2013. Together, the materials in this book weave the fabric of semiotics and significs, two names for the unfolding of semiotics in law and legal discourse at least until the second half of the 20th century, and both of which covered a lawyer’s focus on sign and meaning in law.  The latter is embedded within the cultural imperatives of the civilization that gave these terms meaning and made them an effective tool for the dissection of law, its reconstitution as an instrument to be used by the lawyer to advance the interests of her clients, and for judges as a means to restructure language as a narrative of law whose power could bend behavior to its strictures. Legal semiotics has become an indispensible part of the elite lawyer’s toolkit and a fundamental approach to analysis of legal texts. Two previous volumes published in 2011 and 2012 explored the conceptual, methodological and epistemological progress in the field of legal semiotics, the modern forms of semiotics study, and the mechanics of meaning making processes by lawyers. Yet the great lessons of semiotics requires a focus on the origins of the concepts and frameworks that would become contemporary legal semiotics, its origins as an object of the consciousness of meaning making—one whose roots, as lessons for the oracular conversations of law, are expanded in this volume.

This book examines the concept of meaning and ourgeneral understanding of reality in a legal and philosophical context. Startingfrom the premise that meaning is a matter of linguistic and other forms ofarticulation, it considers the inherent philosophical consequences.  PartI presents Klages’, Derrida’s, Von Hofmannsthal’s and Wittgenstein’sexplorations of silence as a source of articulation and meaning.  Debatesabout 20th century psychologism gave theattitude concept a pivotal role; it illustrates the importance of the discoverythat a word is globally qualified as ‘the basic unit of language’.  Thisis mirrored in the fact that we understand reality as a matter of particles andthus interpret the real as a component of an all-embracing ‘particle story’.Each chapter of the book focuses on an aspect of legal semiotics relatedto the chapter’s theme: for instance on the meaning of a Judge’s ‘Saying forLaw’, on law students training in varying attitudes or on the ties between lawand language. Part II of the book illustrates our generalunderstanding of reality as a matter of particles and partitioning, andexamines texts that prove that particle thinking is basic for our meaningconcept. It shows that physics, quantum theory, holism, and modern brainresearch focusing on human linguistic capabilities, confirm their ties to theparticle story. In contrast, the book concludes that partitions and particlesare neither a fact in the history of the cosmos nor a determinant of knowledgeand the sciences, and that meaning is a process: a constellation rather than afixation.  This is manifest once one understands meaning as the result ofcontinuously changing attitudes, which create our narratives on cosmos andcreation. The book proposes a new key for meaning: a linguistic occurrenceanchored in dimensions of human narrativity.

Together, the materials in this book weave the fabric of semiotics and significs, two names for the unfolding of semiotics in law and legal discourse at least until the second half of the 20th century, and both of which covered a lawyer’s focus on sign and meaning in law.

This engaging book examines the origins and first effects of the concept ‘legal semiotics’, focusing on the inventor of the term, Roberta Kevelson (1931-1998). It highlights the importance of her ideas and works which have contributed to legal theory, legal interpretation and philosophy of language. Kevelson’s work is particularly relevant today, in our world of global electronic communication networks which rely so much on language, signs, signals and shortcuts. Kevelson could not have foreseen the 21st century, yet the story of her work and influence deserves more attention as it is key to our understanding of modern legal discourse and why law fascinates and is accepted in modern society. The authors draw on Kevelson’s hitherto unknown Office Papers and Notes, and a biographical examination points to key influences in her work such as the early feminist movements of the US East Coast, the philosophy of Charles Sanders Peirce and the semiotics of Thomas Sebeok. This formsthe basis for a more encompassing research of Kevelson’s position, work and philosophical background, which the authors call for. A quick and enlightening read, this book interests a wide range of readers with an interest in legal history and the fields which Kevelson both drew on and influenced, including lawyers, students and scholars.

This book examines the concept of meaning and ourgeneral understanding of reality in a legal and philosophical context.

This book examines the progress to date in the many facets – conceptual, epistemological and methodological - of the field of legal semiotics. It reflects the fulfilment of the promise of legal semiotics when used to explore the law, its processes and interpretation.This study in Legal Semiotics brings together the theory, structure and practise of legal semiotics in an accessible style. The book introduces the concepts of legal semiotics and offers an insight in contemporary and future directions which the semiotics of law is going to take.A theoretical and practical oriented synthesis of the historical, contemporary and most recent ideas pertaining to legal semiotics, the book will be of interest to scholars and researchers in law and social sciences , as well as those who are interested in the interdisciplinary dynamics of law and semiotics.

This book offers educational experiences, including reflections and the resulting essays, from the Roberta Kevelson Seminar on Law and Semiotics held during 2008 – 2011 at Penn State University’s Dickinson School of Law.  The texts address educational aspects of law that require attention and that also are issues in traditional jurisprudence and legal theory.  The book introduces education in legal semiotics as it evolves in a legal curriculum. Specific semiotic concepts, such as “sign”, “symbol” or “legal language,” demonstrate how a lawyer’s professionally important tasks of name-giving and meaning-giving are seldom completely understood by lawyers or laypeople.  These concepts require analyses of considerable depth to understand the expressiveness of these legal names and meanings, and to understand how lawyers can “say the law,” or urge such a saying correctly and effectively in the context of a natural language that is understandable to all of us.  The book brings together the structure of the Seminar, its foundational philosophical problems, the specifics of legal history, and the semiotics of the legal system with specific themes such as gender, family law, and business law.

This book examines the progress to date in the many facets – conceptual, epistemological and methodological - of the field of legal semiotics. It reflects the fulfilment of the promise of legal semiotics when used to explore the law, its processes and interpretation.This study in Legal Semiotics brings together the theory, structure and practise of legal semiotics in an accessible style. The book introduces the concepts of legal semiotics and offers an insight in contemporary and future directions which the semiotics of law is going to take.A theoretical and practical oriented synthesis of the historical, contemporary and most recent ideas pertaining to legal semiotics, the book will be of interest to scholars and researchers in law and social sciences , as well as those who are interested in the interdisciplinary dynamics of law and semiotics.

This book offers educational experiences, including reflections and the resulting essays, from the Roberta Kevelson Seminar on Law and Semiotics held during 2008 – 2011 at Penn State University’s Dickinson School of Law.

This book present a structure for understanding and exploring the semiotic character of law and law systems. Cultivating a deep understanding for the ways in which lawyers make meaning—the way in which they help make the world and are made, in turn by the world they create —can provide a basis for consciously engaging in the work of the law and in the production of meaning. The book first introduces the reader to the idea of semiotics in general and legal semiotics in particular, as well as to the major actors and shapers of the field, and to the heart of the matter: signs.  The second part studies the development of the strains of thinking that together now define semiotics, with attention being paid to the pragmatics, psychology and language of legal semiotics. A third part examines the link between legal theory and semiotics, the practice of law, the critical legal studies movement in the USA, the semiotics of politics and structuralism. The last part of the book ties the different strands of legal semiotics together, and closely looks at semiotics in the lawyer’s toolkit—such as: text, name and meaning. ​

This book present a structure for understanding and exploring the semiotic character of law and law systems. Cultivating a deep understanding for the ways in which lawyers make meaning—the way in which they help make the world and are made, in turn by the world they create —can provide a basis for consciously engaging in the work of the law and in the production of meaning. The book first introduces the reader to the idea of semiotics in general and legal semiotics in particular, as well as to the major actors and shapers of the field, and to the heart of the matter: signs.  The second part studies the development of the strains of thinking that together now define semiotics, with attention being paid to the pragmatics, psychology and language of legal semiotics. A third part examines the link between legal theory and semiotics, the practice of law, the critical legal studies movement in the USA, the semiotics of politics and structuralism. The last part of the book ties the different strands of legal semiotics together, and closely looks at semiotics in the lawyer’s toolkit—such as: text, name and meaning. ​