FAIRNESS AS INTERPRETIVE DEVICE IN LAW? (AN ANALYSIS OF DISCURSIVE PRACTICES IN THE RECENT CONFLICT ABOUT VOTING RIGHTS IN HONG KONG AND THEIR ANCHORAGE IN ARGUMENTATIVE PRACTICES OF EAST ASIA)
PDF

Keywords

fairness
interpretation
legal discourse

How to Cite

GALDIA, M., & LIACI, A. (2016). FAIRNESS AS INTERPRETIVE DEVICE IN LAW? (AN ANALYSIS OF DISCURSIVE PRACTICES IN THE RECENT CONFLICT ABOUT VOTING RIGHTS IN HONG KONG AND THEIR ANCHORAGE IN ARGUMENTATIVE PRACTICES OF EAST ASIA). Comparative Legilinguistics, 26, 125–151. https://doi.org/10.14746/cl.2016.26.06

Abstract

Problems related to a conflict about the content of rights are analysed below from the legal-linguistic perspective in the context of the recent dispute about voting rights in Hong Kong. The central legal-linguistic problem that is also the starting point for the analysis of argumentative samples is the question whether legal and legally relevant, yet not strictly legal arguments in such disputes are actually cross-cultural. Furthermore, the question what role, if any, the culture-specific arguments and legal-linguistic devices play in such conflicts is considered as well. With this aim in mind, legal provisions relevant to the conflict and the argumentation used by the opposing sides are explored to find out the legal-linguistically relevant mechanisms that might facilitate the solution of conflicts about the content of rights. Fairness as an interpretive device appears as the most appealing cross-cultural mechanism. Meanwhile, its application in conflict solution mechanisms shows the embeddedness of legal mechanisms in broader social structures that also set limits to the application of purely legal discursive devices. As a result, the analysed conflict appears as an amalgam of legal and extra-legal arguments and non-verbal signs that in their application are cross-cultural. Equally, fairness as an interpretive device in law is deemed cross-cultural, yet also limited in the scope of its application to discursive practices in which it emerges.
https://doi.org/10.14746/cl.2016.26.06
PDF

References

Cao, Deborah. 2004. Chinese Law. A Language Perspective. Aldershot: Ashgate.

Chan, Ho-yan. 2012. Bridging the gap between language and law. Translational issues in creating legal Chinese in Hong Kong, in: Babel, vol. 58/2, pp. 127-144.

Ching, Kwan Lee. 2014. State & Social Protest, in: Daedalus, nr. 143 (2), pp. 124-134.

Dworkin, Ronald. 1977. Taking Rights Seriously. London: Duckworth.

Galdia, Marcus. 2014. Legal Discourses. Frankfurt/New York: Peter Lang.

Husa, Jaakko. 2015. A New Introduction to Comparative Law. Oxford/Portland: Hart Publishing.

Kalinowski, Marc. 2011. Introduction to Wang Chong, Lun Heng/Balance de Discours. Paris: Les Belles Lettres.

Khalat, Roula. 2015. Hong Kong’s lucky revolutionaries, in: Financial Times, 5 March 2015.

Liebman, Benjamin L. 2014. Legal Reform: China’s Law-Stability Paradox, in: Daedalus, 143 (2), pp. 96-109.

Loewe, Michael. 2004. The Men who Governed Han China. A Companion to a Biographical Dictionary of the Qin, Former Han and Xin Periods. Leyden: Brill.

Maspero, Henri. 1950. Le Taoïsme et les religions chinoises. Paris: Gallimard.

Paakkanen, Mikko. 2014. Report in Helsingin Sanomat: Hongkongin demokratian puolesta, June 24, 2014.

Peerenboom, Randall P. 2002. China’s Long March Toward Rule of Law. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Perry, Elizabeth, J. 2002. Challenging the Mandate of Heaven: Social Protest and State Power in China. Armonk: Sharpe.

Perry, Elizabeth, J. 2008. Chinese Conceptions of Rights: From Mencius to Mao - and Now, in: Perspectives of Politics, nr. 6, pp. 37-50.

Yahuda, Michael. 1997. Hong Kong. China’s Challenge. London/New York: Routledge.