This volume highlights important aspects of the complex relationship between common language
and legal practice. It hosts an interdisciplinary discussion between cognitive science
philosophy of language and philosophy of law in which an international group of authors aims
to promote enrich and refine this new debate. Philosophers of law have always shown a keen
interest in cognitive science and philosophy of language in order to find tools to solve their
problems: recently this interest was reciprocated and scholars from cognitive science and
philosophy of language now look to the law as a testing ground for their theses.Using the most
sophisticated tools available to pragmatics sociolinguistics cognitive sciences and legal
theory an interdisciplinary international group of authors address questions like: Does legal
interpretation differ from ordinary understanding? Is the common pragmatic apparatus
appropriate to legal practice? What can pragmatics teach about theconcept of law and pervasive
legal phenomena such as testimony or legal disagreements?
