Popularization is a controversial field which, like modality, appears to be rather slippery and fuzzy, therefore still in need of much investigation as to the definition of its proper boundaries, its own linguistic markers, the ‘operationalization’ of control and power relations and embedding of political implications in it. Variation due to the co-existence of different types of popularization in the dissemination of specialized knowledge to lay people renders the whole matter all the more so. In an attempt to provide some new insights with particular reference to institutional discourse, this study aims to investigate features of popularization in the dissemination of legal knowledge in Summaries of EU legislation within the areas of freedom, security and justice. The Summaries, which are retrievable from the EU website , are in the form of factsheets which, following a standardised template, are drafted by a team of legal writers, who take account of any amendments to the law, and then validated by the relevant Commission departments. Adoptions of related acts are included in the Summaries. Each Summary thus simplifies one specific piece of legislation in force, e.g. Directive, Regulation or Decision (summaries of preparatory and other acts, communications, etc. are also provided as well as a link to the official and full-length version of the legislative provision on the EUR-Lex or PreLex site) and provides up-to-date coverage of EU legislation, except legal decisions having only temporary interest. It is worth noticing that the Summaries of EU legislation have only an informative and popularizing function and no legal value, as is underlined in the EU website . As to web users, it is not easy to identify and define the target audience of the Summaries since it will presumably include both experts and lay people. In fact, the Summaries provide specialized knowledge through links for the former, or anyone wishing to approach legislative provisions more closely, and general information for the latter. It is due to the peculiar nature of this type of popularization that the boundaries between the target (the Summary) and the source text (the Directive) are rather flexible.
Popularization and Legal Discourse: Summaries of EU Legislation
D'AVANZO, STEFANIA;
2012-01-01
Abstract
Popularization is a controversial field which, like modality, appears to be rather slippery and fuzzy, therefore still in need of much investigation as to the definition of its proper boundaries, its own linguistic markers, the ‘operationalization’ of control and power relations and embedding of political implications in it. Variation due to the co-existence of different types of popularization in the dissemination of specialized knowledge to lay people renders the whole matter all the more so. In an attempt to provide some new insights with particular reference to institutional discourse, this study aims to investigate features of popularization in the dissemination of legal knowledge in Summaries of EU legislation within the areas of freedom, security and justice. The Summaries, which are retrievable from the EU website , are in the form of factsheets which, following a standardised template, are drafted by a team of legal writers, who take account of any amendments to the law, and then validated by the relevant Commission departments. Adoptions of related acts are included in the Summaries. Each Summary thus simplifies one specific piece of legislation in force, e.g. Directive, Regulation or Decision (summaries of preparatory and other acts, communications, etc. are also provided as well as a link to the official and full-length version of the legislative provision on the EUR-Lex or PreLex site) and provides up-to-date coverage of EU legislation, except legal decisions having only temporary interest. It is worth noticing that the Summaries of EU legislation have only an informative and popularizing function and no legal value, as is underlined in the EU website . As to web users, it is not easy to identify and define the target audience of the Summaries since it will presumably include both experts and lay people. In fact, the Summaries provide specialized knowledge through links for the former, or anyone wishing to approach legislative provisions more closely, and general information for the latter. It is due to the peculiar nature of this type of popularization that the boundaries between the target (the Summary) and the source text (the Directive) are rather flexible.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
