Vagueness and law : philosophical and legal perspectives / edited by Geert Keil (Professor of Philosophy, Humboldt University Berlin) and Ralf Poscher (Professor of Public Law and Legal Philosophy Albert-Ludwigs-University of Freiburg).

Vagueness and law : philosophical and legal perspectives / edited by Geert Keil (Professor of Philosophy, Humboldt University Berlin) and Ralf Poscher (Professor of Public Law and Legal Philosophy Albert-Ludwigs-University of Freiburg).

First edition.

Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2016.

©2016.

viii, 338 pages ; 24 cm

"Vague expressions are omnipresent in natural language. As such, their use in legal texts is virtually inevitable. If a law contains vague terms, the question whether it applies to a particular case often lacks a clear answer. One of the fundamental pillars of the rule of law is legal certainty. The determinacy of the law enables people to use it as a guide and places judges in the position to decide impartially. Vagueness poses a threat to these ideals. In borderline cases, the law seems to be indeterminate and thus incapable of serving its core rule of law value. In the philosophy of language, vagueness has become one of the hottest topics of the last two decades. Linguists and philosophers have investigated what distinguishes 'soritical' vagueness from other kinds of linguistic indeterminacy, such as ambiguity, generality, open texture, and family resemblance concepts. There is a vast literature that discusses the logical, semantic, pragmatic, and epistemic aspects of these phenomena. Bringing together leading scholars working on the topic of vagueness in philosophy and in law, this book fosters a dialogue between philosophers and legal scholars by examining how philosophers conceive vagueness in law from their theoretical perspective and how legal theorists make use of philosophical theories of vagueness."

Includes bibliographical references and index.

STA

K290 .V34 2016

English

9780198782889
0198782888