Instituto de Estudios Políticos y Derecho Público "Dr. Humberto J. La Roche"
de la Facultad de Ciencias Jurídicas y Políticas de la Universidad del Zulia
Maracaibo, Venezuela
Esta publicación cientíca en formato digital es continuidad de la revista impresa
ISSN-Versión Impresa 0798-1406 / ISSN-Versión on line 2542-3185Depósito legal pp
197402ZU34
ppi 201502ZU4645
Vol.40 N° 72
Enero
Junio
2022
Recibido el 14/09/2021 Aceptado el 08/12/2021
ISSN 0798- 1406 ~ De pó si to le gal pp 198502ZU132
Cues tio nes Po lí ti cas
La re vis ta Cues tio nes Po lí ti cas, es una pu bli ca ción aus pi cia da por el Ins ti tu to
de Es tu dios Po lí ti cos y De re cho Pú bli co “Dr. Hum ber to J. La Ro che” (IEPDP) de la Fa-
cul tad de Cien cias Ju rí di cas y Po lí ti cas de la Uni ver si dad del Zu lia.
En tre sus ob je ti vos fi gu ran: con tri buir con el pro gre so cien tí fi co de las Cien cias
Hu ma nas y So cia les, a tra vés de la di vul ga ción de los re sul ta dos lo gra dos por sus in ves-
ti ga do res; es ti mu lar la in ves ti ga ción en es tas áreas del sa ber; y pro pi ciar la pre sen ta-
ción, dis cu sión y con fron ta ción de las ideas y avan ces cien tí fi cos con com pro mi so so cial.
Cues tio nes Po lí ti cas apa re ce dos ve ces al año y pu bli ca tra ba jos ori gi na les con
avan ces o re sul ta dos de in ves ti ga ción en las áreas de Cien cia Po lí ti ca y De re cho Pú bli-
co, los cua les son so me ti dos a la con si de ra ción de ár bi tros ca li fi ca dos.
ESTA PU BLI CA CIÓN APA RE CE RE SE ÑA DA, EN TRE OTROS ÍN DI CES, EN
:
Re vicyhLUZ, In ter na tio nal Po li ti cal Scien ce Abs tracts, Re vis ta In ter ame ri ca na de
Bi blio gra fía, en el Cen tro La ti no ame ri ca no para el De sa rrol lo (CLAD), en Bi blio-
gra fía So cio Eco nó mi ca de Ve ne zue la de RE DIN SE, In ter na tio nal Bi blio graphy of
Po li ti cal Scien ce, Re vencyt, His pa nic Ame ri can Pe rio di cals In dex/HAPI), Ul ri ch’s
Pe rio di cals Di rec tory, EBS CO. Se en cuen tra acre di ta da al Re gis tro de Pu bli ca cio-
nes Cien tí fi cas y Tec no ló gi cas Ve ne zo la nas del FO NA CIT, La tin dex.
Di rec to ra
L
OIRALITH
M. C
HIRINOS
P
ORTILLO
Co mi té Edi tor
Eduviges Morales Villalobos
Fabiola Tavares Duarte
Ma ría Eu ge nia Soto Hernández
Nila Leal González
Carmen Pérez Baralt
Co mi té Ase sor
Pedro Bracho Grand
J. M. Del ga do Ocan do
José Ce rra da
Ri car do Com bel las
An gel Lom bar di
Die ter Nohlen
Al fre do Ra mos Ji mé nez
Go ran Ther born
Frie drich Welsch
Asis ten tes Ad mi nis tra ti vos
Joan López Urdaneta y Nil da Ma rín
Re vis ta Cues tio nes Po lí ti cas. Av. Gua ji ra. Uni ver si dad del Zu lia. Nú cleo Hu ma nís ti co. Fa-
cul tad de Cien cias Ju rí di cas y Po lí ti cas. Ins ti tu to de Es tu dios Po lí ti cos y De re cho Pú bli co
“Dr. Hum ber to J. La Ro che”. Ma ra cai bo, Ve ne zue la. E- mail: cues tio nes po li ti cas@gmail.
com ~ loi chi ri nos por til lo@gmail.com. Te le fax: 58- 0261- 4127018.
Vol. 40, Nº 72 (2022), 89-107
IEPDP-Facultad de Ciencias Jurídicas y Políticas - LUZ
Semiotics of law in modern
philosophical and legal research
DOI: https://doi.org/10.46398/cuestpol.4072.05
Oleg Bandura *
Oleksandr Lytvynov **
Sergiy Maksymov ***
Oleg Pavlyshyn ****
Irina Smaznova *****
Abstract
The objective of the article was to assess the semiotics of law
in modern philosophical and legal research. Recently, semiotic
scientic research on the analysis of legal reality has become
increasingly relevant, its demand is explained by the active
search for meta-legal foundations for the integration of modern
legal theory. The research carried out in the proposed article is
applied using dialectical, systemic structural, genetic, and other
methods, which allows us to arm that interdisciplinary studies of law
from the point of view of semiotics compete with many other approaches
and contribute to solving important problems of philosophical and legal
ciencias. It is conceptually concluded that the semiotics of law has direct
and indirect organic relations with all the main subdisciplines of the
philosophy of law: legal ontology, epistemology, anthropology, axiology,
and praxeology, and represents one of the interdisciplinary approaches to
law. The importance of semiotic analysis of the problems of legal reality
is emphasized, which demonstrates the logic of its construction, systemic
and structural connections, reveals the internal mechanisms and symbolic
patterns of its development.
Keywords: cognitive activity; methodology of law; legal semiotics;
human thinking; legal regulation.
* Doctor of Philosophy, Associate Professor, Professor of Department of Philosophy of Law and Legal
Logic of National Academy of Internal Aairs, Kyiv, Ukraine. ORСID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-
0002-8043-0988
** Doctor of Law, Associate Professor, Head of the Department of Social and Humanitarian Disciplines
of Luhansk State University of Internal Aairs named after E. O. Didorenko, Severodonetsk, Ukraine.
ORСID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2257-2224
*** Doctor of Law, Professor, Professor of Department of Theory and Philosophy of Law of Yaroslav Mudryi
National Law University, Kharkiv, Ukraine. ORСID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3165-8142
**** Doctor of Law, Associate Professor, Professor of Department of Philosophy of Law and Legal Logic,
National Academy of Internal Aairs, Kyiv, Ukraine. ORСID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9444-
4734
***** Doctor of Law, Associate Professor, Head of the Department of Philosophy National University
"Odessa Law Academy", Odesa, Ukraine. ORСID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2183-3437
90 Oleg Bandura, Oleksandr Lytvynov, Sergiy Maksymov, Oleg Pavlyshyn y Irina Smaznova
Semiotics of law in modern philosophical and legal research
Semiótica del derecho en la investigación losóca y
jurídica moderna
Resumen
El objetivo del articulo fue valorar la semiótica del derecho en la
investigación losóca y jurídica moderna. Recientemente, la investigación
cientíca semiótica sobre el análisis de la realidad jurídica se ha vuelto
cada vez más relevante, su demanda se explica por la búsqueda activa
de fundamentos metajurídicos para la integración de la teoría jurídica
moderna. La investigación realizada en el artículo propuesto se aplica
utilizando métodos dialécticos, estructurales sistémicos, genéticos y otros,
lo que permite armar que los estudios interdisciplinarios del derecho
desde el punto de vista de la semiótica compiten con muchos otros
enfoques y contribuyen a resolver problemas importantes de las ciencias
losócas y jurídicas. Se concluye conceptualmente que la semiótica del
derecho tiene relaciones orgánicas directas e indirectas con todas las
principales subdisciplinas de la losofía del derecho: ontología jurídica,
epistemología, antropología, axiología y praxeología, y representa uno de
los enfoques interdisciplinarios del derecho. Se enfatiza la importancia del
análisis semiótico de los problemas de la realidad jurídica, que demuestra
la lógica de su construcción, conexiones sistémicas y estructurales, revela
los mecanismos internos y patrones simbólicos de su desarrollo.
Palabras clave: actividad cognitiva, metodología del derecho, semiótica
jurídica, pensamiento humano, regulación jurídica.
Introduction
Semiotics (from gr. «semeion.» – sign) – is a eld of interdisciplinary
research that studies knowledge and sign systems as a means of storing,
transmitting and reinstalling information in the world as a whole, human
thinking and society, also during this time for cognition certain sign systems
(semiotics of language, semiotics of art, semiotics of religion, semiotics of
brush, semiotics of art, semiotics of religion, semiotics of brush, semitopics,
semitopoki.
Semiotics aims to identify common knowledge in the substantiation
of information processes in nature and society, to exclude the laws of
cognition and communication, to remove the semi-semiotic nature of these
processes, to describe information-semiotic components of personality
and society, to expand the range of humanities. The application of the
achievements of semiotics to specic areas of social life and human activity
contributes to productivity, as well as new industry knowledge, which is
91
CUESTIONES POLÍTICAS
Vol. 40 Nº 72 (2022): 89-107
formed on the basis of such application, have a clearly dened character
and necessary representatives who must take into account independent
disciplines. semiotic rights.
Almost decisions after the onset of general semiotics attracted ideas for
its achievement. They began to compile legal semiotics as an autonomous
science, designed to analyze the symbolic system-structural organization of
law, as well as the essence, power, restoration and patterns of functioning of
legal symbols. Law in this approach becomes a theory, which is the nature
and logic of law from the standpoint of theory. An in-depth study of legal
reality and legal person with the help of theoretical and methodological
apparatus and tools of semiotics «can identify relationships and restorations
that reveal the peculiarities of interaction between people and rights, help
to capture general semiotic patterns that occur in the legal system. and
xing the pattern of patterns of functioning and development of law opens
new directions and prospects for philosophical and legal research, and
semiotics of law can be not only as a disciplinary eld of knowledge about
law, but also as a theoretical and methodological paradigm of philosophical
and legal discourse (Pavlyshyn, 2017).
From a semiotic point of view, there is a system of systemic formal
elements that are combined in a variable and a system of formal elements
that are combined in a variable and systematic formal elements that are
combined in variable commission committees for analytical activities. The
range of these elements is small, but they can create a lot of theoretically
obsessive itzoybi. The semiotic approach to rights oers the possibility of
revealing the internal mechanisms of its functioning as isolation as isolation
as isolation.
O. Minchenko emphasizes the importance of taking into account
the semiotics of law in lawmaking, as the legislation contains terms
incomprehensible to a wide range of subjects of law, implemented from
narrow elds of knowledge, when there is no clear agreement between
terms in scope or content, which changes terminological conicts and
Understanding the essence of legal semiotics is a factor in the eectiveness
of lawmaking semiotics is a factor in the eectiveness of lawmaking
semiotics (Minchenko, 2019).
Given that in modern science the practical struggle with opportunities,
we can say that for those who now work, does not dene the principles
of regularity, methodological institutions and develops fundamental
theoretical foundations of semiotic and semiotic-legal research, but also
analyzes specic legal manifestations in the context of semiotic output,
which may arise their symbolic nature and characteristics (Pavlyshyn,
2017).
92 Oleg Bandura, Oleksandr Lytvynov, Sergiy Maksymov, Oleg Pavlyshyn y Irina Smaznova
Semiotics of law in modern philosophical and legal research
1. Methodology of the study
The study of the connections between the semiotics of law and ontology,
epistemology, axiology, anthropology and praxeology of law conducted
in the proposed article is essentially the application of the semiotic-legal
approach to these philosophical and legal disciplines. The study also used:
- dialectical method, the need for which was determined by the fact
that the philosophy of law is in a state of constant development,
with its components are organically linked; he made it possible to
determine the place and role of the semiotics of law in the philosophy
of law and the interrelationships that exist between the semiotics of
law and other philosophical and legal disciplines;
- system-structural and functional methods, the need for which is
explained by the fact that the philosophy of law is not just a set of
components, but forms a system, all components of which are closely
related to each other and perform their own functions ;
- genetic method, which allowed to substantiate the sequence of
philosophical and legal disciplines, the relations with which were
analyzed.
2. Analysis of recent research
Research and organizational eorts in this area are of great importance
for the registration of the autonomous status of semiotics of law and the
active development of semiotic-legal methodology in the recent period.
Methodological developments and investigations of leading Ukrainian
scientists are devoted to certain aspects of this issue (Khabibulina, 2001;
Chestnov et al., 2006; Jackson, 1985; Balinska, 2013; Kovkel, 2009;
Merezhko, 2003; Sarkisov, 2000; Chestnov et al., 2006). The semiotics of
law has gained worldwide recognition - every year in dierent countries
subject and thematic «round tables» are held, since 1987 the international
journal Semiotics of law is published, other forms of cooperation and
coordination of researchers in this eld are developed.
At the same time in the literature on the philosophy of law there is
intelligence on the problems of legal semiotics (Balinska, 2013; Kovkel and
Popova, 2019; Minchenko, 2019). Moreover, legal semiotics is sometimes
positioned as a component of the philosophy of law, so other philosophical
and legal disciplines inuence it. A number of works raise questions about
the relationship of legal semiotics with other components of the philosophy
of law. Some authors touch on the connections of legal semiotics with legal
axiology (Minchenko, 2019; Sarkisov, 2020; Balinska, 2013), with legal
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Vol. 40 Nº 72 (2022): 89-107
epistemology and ontology (Minchenko, 2019; Crymskii, 2003), with legal
praxeology (Gusarev, 2005).
But these authors mainly only fragmentarily study the impact of
semiotics of law on these components of the philosophy of law, and to a
much lesser extent aect their inverse eect on the semiotics of law, which is
actually important for the development of both semiotic and philosophical
law research. signicant scientic interest. This determines the relevance
of this study.
3. Results and discussion
If we summarize the known works on this issue and encyclopedic
denitions (Pavlyshyn, 2017), we can state that the semiotics of law is a
eld of knowledge formed on the basis of interdisciplinary studies of law as
a sign system aimed at analyzing sign and structural organization of law, as
well as the essence, properties, relations and patterns of functioning of legal
signs. Under the semiotics of law, in addition, understand the sign theory,
in which law is seen as a means of storing, processing and transmitting
information in society, or theory that considers the nature and logic of law
in terms of sign as a key characteristic.
In connection with semiotic studies of other socio-cultural phenomena,
the use of the term «semiotics of law» should also be taken into account to
denote a specic symbolic organization of legal reality, ie in the context of
interpreting legal reality itself as a certain sign system. Thus, depending
on the context, this concept is given one or another meaning, and the
mentioned term is used in the appropriate special meaning.
The object of the semiotics of law, ie the dimension of reality, which is
aimed at the cognitive activity of the subject within this eld of knowledge,
is the law in its symbolic reection or sign system and structure of law.
The subject of semiotics of law is formed by the general principles of
sign organization of law, patterns of its development and functioning as
a sign system, syntactic, semantic and pragmatic relations between legal
signs, legal phenomena and carriers of legal consciousness.
The main functions of the semiotics of law in the system of legal
knowledge: 1) cognitive (information); 2) methodological; 3) critical; 4)
symbolic and reective; 5) prognostic, etc.
It should also be noted the signicant heuristic potential of semiotics
of law, especially in the theoretical development of concepts that emerge
from research at the intersection of dierent areas of scientic knowledge
and reect the interaction of complex sign systems – morality, law, politics,
religion and other sociocultural phenomena.
94 Oleg Bandura, Oleksandr Lytvynov, Sergiy Maksymov, Oleg Pavlyshyn y Irina Smaznova
Semiotics of law in modern philosophical and legal research
Semiotic-legal methodology of legal research is a system of
methodological approaches and theoretical principles of their use in the
study of legal phenomena, which are based on the understanding of legal
reality as a sign system.
Methods and strategies of studying law as a certain ideal object determine
the theoretical plane of semiotic-legal methodology, and the methods of
purposeful transformation of legal reality and achieving the desired results
- its practical plane. Both the rst and the second have a common basis, are
based on a single methodological basis and are based on the recognition of
law as a model of multidimensional sign socio-cultural system, in which
there are links between elements of one level, interlevel links, and links
objects of spiritual, social and material reality, which they denote.
In this case, in contrast to alternative methodological systems that
absolutize certain aspects of the existence of law and concentrate on
certain properties, law is seen as a form of social consciousness, value and
normative system, regulator of social relations, the practice of human life.
With the help of semiotic-legal methodology, each structural level of legal
reality (legal principles-ideas, legal prescriptions-norms, legal relations) is
analyzed as part of a single universe. These subsystems, in which, along
with the general and their own laws, are recognized as independent sign
objects with specic sign characteristics, while this approach preserves a
holistic view of law as a socio-cultural phenomenon. The symbolic nature
of law allows us to apply the achievements of semiotics to the analysis of
various legal phenomena, respectively, to learn more about the law and see
other aspects of this system object.
The semiotics of law is not only a eld of research that has an
interdisciplinary nature, but also a relevant eld of knowledge about law
in its symbolic dimension. The methodological aspect of considering this
concept can be revealed using an alternative meaning of a more general
category. Semiotics is positioned as a philosophical method of research and
interpretation of reality, along with dialectics, psychoanalysis, hermeneutics,
phenomenology, structuralism and other approaches formed on the basis
of philosophical trends, which allows us to consider the semiotics of law as
an independent and full methodology of philosophical and legal.
Modern philosophical and legal discourse is increasingly turning to
intersubjectivism as a way to justify law and tends to integrative theories
of law, which indicates a departure from the classical opposition of
jusnaturalism and legal positivism as types of legal understanding. The
emergence of communicative theories of law, conrming this conclusion,
stimulates the development of a new theoretical and methodological
support, terminological apparatus, which is used in the study of the
symbolic nature of law.
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The semiotic approach to the analysis of legal existence has both
integrative – due to the fact that it avoids the traditional opposition of
natural and positive law, and independent methodological signicance, as
it allows to reveal the properties and features of legal reality that remain
underdeveloped without falling into the eld of alternative approaches.
This testies to the compliance of semiotic-legal methodology with modern
demands and needs of legal theory and its ability to respond to current
challenges of legal practice in the world and in Ukraine.
The starting point for this methodological approach is the assertion of
the symbolic nature of law – the assertion that legal reality, which is rich
in content and structurally complex formation and reects the peculiarities
of human perception of the world, as well as objective laws of human
coexistence in society, is also symbolic. Legal norms, with a well-established
understanding of them as elements of law, are also part of a special legal
matter, the internal logic of the organization of which is revealed by semiotic
studies of legal reality. At the same time, it is impossible to study a legal
sign and legal sign constructions separately from legal practice, ie semiotic
studies of legal reality have a clearly dened praxeological character.
Providing an opportunity to look at the processes taking place in legal
reality from a dierent angle and at a deeper level, the semiotics of law
allows to gain new knowledge about law, which is embodied in the new
integrative (as it is typical of modern theories of intersubjectivist type)
legal understanding. criticism of positive legal forms of organization of
public life, and in proposals for improving its legal regulation, as well as
assumptions about the prospects for the development of modern legal
systems, lawmaking and law enforcement, etc.
Semiotic analysis of law reveals the internal mechanisms and symbolic
patterns of its functioning, demonstrates the logic of construction, systemic
and structural connections of legal reality, thus equipping the philosopher
of law with valuable knowledge that can be used to understand the
characteristics of legal organization of social life and to improve the practice
of regulatory regulation of public relations.
Coordination of semiotic research with problematic issues of philosophy
of law, key issues of ontological, epistemological, anthropological,
axiological, praxeological nature, which determine the subject eld of its
individual sections, increases the practical value of these studies, increases
the eectiveness of scientic research, and promotes heuristic potential
eld of knowledge.
Due to its metalegal nature, the semiotics of law generalizes and
interprets knowledge about law according to its own canons, and opens
new directions and perspectives of philosophical and legal research, forms a
paradigm of philosophical and legal discourses of today, is a theoretical and
96 Oleg Bandura, Oleksandr Lytvynov, Sergiy Maksymov, Oleg Pavlyshyn y Irina Smaznova
Semiotics of law in modern philosophical and legal research
methodological basis for symbolic theory of law and the corresponding type.
legal understanding, which has an integrative nature and reects the latest
trends in legal science. The main feature of this methodological approach
to the interpretation of the essence and specics of legal phenomena
and processes and, accordingly, a signicant advantage of semiotic-legal
methodology is their clear praxeological orientation, reected in a number
of works of famous Ukrainian philosophers of law Olga Balynska, Oleg
Bandura, Oleg Gvozdik, Mykhailo Kostytsky, Oleksandr Lytvynov, Serhiy
Maksymov, Olga Minchenko, Oleg Pavlyshyn, Petro Rabinovych, Iryna
Smaznova and other scientists (Abysova et al., 2019; Kostytsky et al.,
2020) Kushakova-Kostytska et al., 2020; Balinska, 2013; Litvinov, 2014;
Maksimov, 2012; Bandura, 2019; Smaznova, 2019; Rabinovych, 2004;
Pavlyshyn, 2019; Maksimov, 2002; Kostytsky, 2009; Pavlyshyn, 2021).
Considering the system of connections of semiotics of law with
philosophical and legal researches, it is necessary to pay attention to
problems of the basic and fundamental branches of philosophy of law. In
particular, the semiotics of law is organically linked to legal anthropology,
which studies man as a legal being (legal person). In philosophy, man is
understood as an individual, an individual, and as a society. Accordingly, a
legal person can be understood as a separate being and as a society (every
society has its own right).
From the point of view of philosophical anthropology, man must be
considered in the process of its historical development. In general, man
is a biosocial being. Biological and social in it are organically connected
with each other and at the same time they are certain opposites. Both social
and biological can play a leading role in this dialectical unity, depending
on the situation. A fundamental feature of the social is that it cannot exist
without consciousness. Accordingly, the main feature of a legal person is
legal awareness.
The links between legal semiotics and legal anthropology are twofold.
On the one hand, legal semiotics can be considered as a component of
legal anthropology. When researching a person as a legal being, for its
full understanding it is necessary to take into account the fact that in its
activity it cannot do without the use of appropriate signs and symbols. On
the other hand, for a full understanding of legal signs it is necessary to take
into account that they are a means of legal activity, human activity as a legal
entity.
In general, man acts as a semiotic being, «homo semioticus». The
greatest role in human life in general is played by such symbols as words,
because language is a signal system (second); the language of law can be
considered as a verbal abstraction of legal reality.
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A legal person is also a semiotic being. Creating law as a system of signs,
man seeks to build humane law. The application of semiotic methodology
contributes to the implementation of the anthropological paradigm.
Reecting on the general mechanism of creation and understanding
of signs, Olga Balynska writes: “and this sign was clear to all bearers of
a certain type of culture within which this sign existed» (Balinska, 2013:
206). This is also true for the creation and understanding of signs in the
eld of law, ie legal signs.
Touching upon the issue of law-making, O. Balinska expresses such an
interesting opinion that the subjects of this activity can be considered all
members of the legal community, at least in the sense that they participate
in the election of legislative bodies; they are to some extent involved in
the recognition of certain problems of public life as being of sucient
importance and in need of legal settlement; at the same time, it can be
assumed that all of them are also consumers of law, because its norms apply
to all citizens (Balinska, 2013).
The scientist proposes to interpret the creation and perception of legal
signs as a single holistic process of semiosis (the origin, movement and
functioning of these signs). And since the main subject in this process
is a person (both as a creator of law and as a social entity that perceives
law through signs for use, execution, observance and application), it is
appropriate to talk about the anthroposemiosis of law (Balinska, 2013).
Man creates signs, and signs in a sense create man. Raising a child is
the formation of a certain worldview, ie a certain system of symbols. This
system of symbols plays a decisive role in human life. Legal signs have a
fundamental inuence on the formation and development of man as a legal
entity, in the issue of semiotics of law can be identied anthropological
aspect. Legal signs aect a person, his legal worldview, legal behavior,
determining the «norms» of legality and illegality, as well as the level of
legal responsibility for illegal acts and actions (Balinska, 2013). The semiotic
interpretation of the central problems of legal anthropology is becoming
increasingly important. Thus, legal semiotics has organic interrelationships
with legal anthropology.
The semiotics of law has organic, dialectical relationships with legal
praxeology and explores the signs used in human activity as a legal entity. It
is part of the praxeology of law as a science of legal activity, they are related
as part and whole. We can also talk about the semiotics of legal activity. In
the process of such activities, new legal signs are created and given a certain
meaning; individuals and legal entities use these marks in accordance with
their meaning; legal activity is impossible without the use of signs.
The legal symbol and symbolic construction have praxeological and
legal signicance due to the need to solve a number of problems in the eld
98 Oleg Bandura, Oleksandr Lytvynov, Sergiy Maksymov, Oleg Pavlyshyn y Irina Smaznova
Semiotics of law in modern philosophical and legal research
of legal practice, which requires an adequate understanding of the nature
and structural organization of law. In addition, the xation of symbolic
patterns of law can signicantly help in lawmaking, law enforcement, law
enforcement and legal education, and in the process of creating appropriate
electronic automated systems, programs, attempts to informatization and
partial automation of legal activities (Pavlyshyn, 2017). Semiotic-legal
analysis of such legal sign constructions (and concepts) as «legal activity»,
«legal activity», «administrative activity in the eld of law» can give
important results.
Improving legal activity (in particular, legislative, law enforcement, law
enforcement, legal education) and legal activity, as well as human activity
in general, requires analysis of the concept of «management system» and
its symbolic elements, detailed study of the management process in the
eld of law in the semiotic plane. optimal legal solution in general.
But in order for a legal decision to be useful, it must be timely, aimed
at the optimal use of resources of the individual (organization) and must
be able to implement it; the decision should be formulated concisely and
unambiguously, the range of persons to whom it applies, territorial and
chronological boundaries, the order of implementation and cancellation,
other semiotic and legal characteristics necessary for its accurate
understanding should be clearly dened. In case of violation of these
requirements, the legal decision will have negative consequences. Therefore,
it is very important to develop promising areas for improving the process of
justication and legal decision-making. Semiotic methodology should play
a fundamental role here.
If we talk about the requirements for legal activity, then the semiotic
series of their symbolic characteristics and structural elements is as
follows: 1) humanism; 2) justice; 3) legality; 4) validity; 5) expediency;
6) clarity; 7) accuracy; 8) systemicity; 9) predictability, etc. Determining
the areas of improvement of legal activity, it is necessary to focus on these
basic requirements in order to improve the quality of legal decisions and at
the same time look for ways to simplify and accelerate their adoption. In
particular, with the help of semiotic-legal analysis it is possible to determine
the following principal areas of improvement of legal activity: regulatory,
organizational, logistical and educational, as well as a number of specic
areas that are included in each of them (Pavlyshyn, 2017).
The initial sign element of the legal system is law-making activity (this
is the name it has in the general theory of law, although from a semiotic-
legal point of view it is more correct to call it «legislative»); it is followed
by law enforcement and law enforcement (within the abstract semiotic-
legal scheme). However, in terms of socio-legal relations and behavior of
legal entities, law-making (formation and formulation of law) may well be
preceded by compliance, implementation and use of law, empowerment
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CUESTIONES POLÍTICAS
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of certain entities, management decisions in the eld of law and more.
At the same time, the importance of law-making activity is dicult to
overestimate, because it is through this type of legal activity that a formal
model of desired (or undesirable) human behavior in society is built. The
need for law-making activities is caused by the need to regulate new social
relations or improve the legal regulation of existing ones.
In the context of the study of the legal system as a sign construction
should also refer to the procedure for implementing the process of law
enforcement. This process usually begins with establishing the facts of the
case; then establish the legal basis of the case, ie the legal qualication of
the facts and then make a decision in the case and document the decision.
The above is a conrmation that the semiotics of law as a science of signs,
which are the means of legal activity, is part of the praxeology of law as a
science of this activity, that they are related as part and whole.
The semiotics of law is dialectically related to the epistemology of law. It
should be borne in mind that in general, legal activity, which is the subject
of research in legal praxeology, is divided into practical and cognitive.
Each of them uses signs, symbols as necessary means, knowledge of the
law cannot do without signs. Therefore, legal semiotics is a component of
legal knowledge (as well as a component of practical legal activity). Here
is the dialectic of part and whole, legal semiotics in turn aects the legal
epistemology.
We specify the links between the semiotics of law and the epistemology
of law. In order to use legal signs correctly, it is necessary to study their
meaning and investigate the connections between them. The forms and
methods of cognition developed by general epistemology and epistemology
of law are used. It should also be borne in mind that each method has its
own scope. The semiotics of law, establishing the possibility of applying
the methods developed by general epistemology and epistemology of law,
expands the idea of the limits of application of these methods, the features
of their application for the study of legal signs.
The epistemology of law is enriched by semiotic-legal approaches. They
allow us to reveal those aspects of legal life that can not be reproduced
in any other way, produce a special knowledge of law. The study of legal
sign construction has an important epistemological and legal signicance.
Knowledge of law involves its analysis from the standpoint of dierent
approaches and using dierent terminology, categorical apparatus. This
process is due to the rich variety of manifestations of law, which is xed
in the process of its knowledge, understanding and construction of its
holistic vision (Pavlyshyn, 2017). Semiotics of law acts as a methodological
paradigm of philosophical and legal knowledge, and it signicantly increases
the eciency of scientic research, the practical value of research, and
contributes to the development of semiotics of law as an interdisciplinary
100 Oleg Bandura, Oleksandr Lytvynov, Sergiy Maksymov, Oleg Pavlyshyn y Irina Smaznova
Semiotics of law in modern philosophical and legal research
eld of knowledge, realization of its heuristic potential (Pavlyshyn, 2017).
In addition, legal semiotics (and general semiotics), combined with
legal praxeology, has a wide range of heuristics in terms of coordinating
interdisciplinary research. The application of semiotic methodology in the
study of law leads to a signicant change in perceptions of it.
O. Minchenko notes that legal-linguistic interpretation (which has a
direct connection with semiotics) is always not only an interpretation of the
legal text, but also knowledge, nding law and other legal phenomena, as
well as self-knowledge, as it includes value , socio-cultural aspect, historical
experience (Minchenko, 2020). Knowledge of the symbolic nature of law
allows «penetration into the text itself», that the legal text is characterized
by semantic plurality, it is its immanent feature that «understanding of
symbols involves plurality of meanings, as it must be done through legal
discourse» (Minchenko, 2020: 13).
Thus, the connection of the semiotics of law with the epistemology of law is
dialectical in nature – they, having obvious dierences, are interdependent,
cannot exist without each other, constitute a kind of organic unity.
Next, the person begins his activity by dening a goal. Here the
fundamental role is played by needs, interests, values.
Let’s turn to the question of legal values. They can be divided into the
following two categories. The law gives them the status of legal laws and thus
makes them legal values. This is a person, his life, freedom, responsibility,
dignity, property, equality, justice, and so on. All these values are the basis
of human survival, they determine the direction of all legal activities.
The second category includes values produced by law itself (for example,
legality).
In addition, the law itself is of outstanding value. It civilizes both the
individual, his harassment, and society as a whole, it is aimed at resolving
all conicts in society by nonviolent methods, to weaken the role of
arbitrariness and chaos in these processes. Law serves as a means of
establishing a generally stable order in society. The meaning of law is largely
to exclude from people’s lives the «right of force» and replace it with the
«force of law». Law is an eective means of self-realization, self-creation of
man on a historical scale and makes him more humane.
The reason for the value of law is that it regulates social relations
through clearly dened norms. In this sense, law is more valuable than
morality, because its norms, in contrast to moral, are based not only on
the inner convictions of man and public opinion, but also on coercion (or
threat of coercion), including physical, which is more a signicant factor. At
the same time, the law makes the basic moral norms more eective, giving
them the status of such norms that are protected by the state.
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The semiotics of law has organic relationships with the axiology of
law. Axiology of law, exploring the values in the legal eld, works with
signs (more precisely, with their meanings). The axiology of law, like the
semiotics of law, is closely related to the praxeology of law. Signs, symbols
are a means of legal activity, and values determine its goals. Axiology of law
in this regard is part of the praxeology of law (Bandura, 2019). Similarly,
the latter includes the semiotics of law. These two philosophical and legal
disciplines are correlated as part of one whole – legal praxeology, they
occupy the position of its subdisciplines.
The semiotics of law works in conjunction with the axiology of law. In
the semiotic approach to the problems of law (or any other eld of activity),
rst their semiotic interpretation is made, hierarchies of signs and their
groups are established, here the axiological aspect of these problems must
be taken into account. As a philosophical and legal discipline, the semiotics
of law studies law as a sign system.
Cognitive interest and research attention in it are focused mainly on
demonstrating the cognitive capabilities and heuristic potential of a particular
philosophical concept in the eld of legal research. Law is the object of semiotic
analysis in the context of the picture of the world proposed by one of the
philosophical systems (Pavlyshyn, 2017: 76).
Concretizing the relevant concept regarding the features of structural
construction and symbolic organization of law, its understanding,
explanation and development in the conceptual apparatus of this
philosophical concept, legal semiotics necessarily takes into account its
axiological aspect. In addition, the legal sign construction is to some extent
formed on the basis of the value core of natural law and combines it with
the value of the legal form, which it eventually acquires (Sarkisov, 2000).
Symbols, signs are a widely used means of expressing values, the
hierarchy of signs is determined by the hierarchy of values, they are the main
reason for the creation of signs. In the legal eld, both verbal and nonverbal
legal signs are used. Verbal legal signs (legal words-concepts) serve as an
example of value-laden vocabulary that reects the most important social
priorities, contains the ideal of the legal doctrine of the state, represents the
beliefs of society and the will of the majority of citizens (Balinska, 2013).
Non-verbal legal signs also have a value load, as they «model stereotypes
of desired, permitted and prohibited behavior, create legal symbols that
have every chance to grow into symbolic artifacts and national archetypes
that will recognize the state ... The main source of income and formation
of legal… signs is society, so there is every reason to believe that law has a
socio-value conditionality, and society – legal» (Balinska, 2013).
O. Minchenko speaks that a person perceives the values of society in
a symbolic form, symbols are a means of perceiving social values; the
102 Oleg Bandura, Oleksandr Lytvynov, Sergiy Maksymov, Oleg Pavlyshyn y Irina Smaznova
Semiotics of law in modern philosophical and legal research
assimilation of the values of society is an important factor in the development
of the legal worldview and, accordingly, the professionalization of the
sphere of legal activity (Minchenko, 2020). Legal education is a process of
forming a certain hierarchy of legal values, therefore, a certain hierarchy of
legal symbols.
Thus, legal semiotics and axiology have close interrelationships. The
semiotics of law conceptually encompasses the axiology of law, which
explores the value aspect of law, which is created and operates on the basis
of functionally oriented codes, symbols, signs of legal (generally social)
reality. But at the same time legal codes, symbols, signs are part of the value
sphere of law as a means of designating values, the hierarchy of signs is
determined by the hierarchy of values, codes, symbols, signs require a value
approach, axiology of law conceptually covers the semiotics of law.
Legal semiotics and ontology are also dialectically related. Legal
ontology is a theory of legal existence. It can be understood in dierent
ways. In particular, it is quite common to dene it as a system of norms of
law, legal institutions, legal relations, as well as legal awareness (legal ideas,
concepts, theories, emotions, etc.). In our opinion, this is a legal being in
a broad sense, which covers the basic levels of legal reality – the idea of
law, the rule of law and legal life (Maksimov, 2012). Legal existence has an
internal source of development. Such a source is the contradiction between
certain elements of this system.
The development of the world is due to the contradiction between its
deepest essences – the ideal and the material. In the eld of law, the ideal is
expressed in the legal consciousness, and the material – in the results of the
embodiment of the content of legal consciousness in the real life of society,
ie in a set of legal norms and institutions and legal relations. This set is a
legal being in the narrow sense. Legal consciousness thus belongs to the
sphere of legal anthropology as the main feature of a legal person.
Legal signs and legal existence (both in the broad and in the narrow
sense) cannot be separated from each other. On the one hand, legal signs,
symbols are part of legal existence, legal reality because they exist. On
the other hand, for man as a legal being, all legal existence is lled with
symbols. These signs are transformed into information models of things,
objects, phenomena, facts, actions, events, subjects and objects that they
reproduce. Such information models, being saturated with sign codes, are
used in various spheres of human life. One of the areas of application of
such information models is… legal reality (Balinska, 2013).
Semiotic analysis of the problems of legal reality is important. It
demonstrates the logic of its construction, systemic and structural
connections, reveals the internal mechanisms and symbolic patterns of
its development. Thus, it provides the philosopher of law with valuable
103
CUESTIONES POLÍTICAS
Vol. 40 Nº 72 (2022): 89-107
knowledge, useful both for understanding the characteristics of the legal
organization of social life, and for improving the practice of normative
regulation of social relations (Pavlyshyn, 2017).
A certain analogue of the concept of legal reality in the general theory
of law is the concept of the legal system, the use of which in jurisprudence
allows the study and evaluation of positive law in general, and not just its
individual components. There is a widespread opinion among scholars
that the category of the legal system is a reection of the maximum level
of abstraction in the range of legal categories that characterize the positive
dimension of law as a systemic phenomenon. Its components are the legal
system, the legal system, legal principles, legal culture, legal institutions,
legal techniques, legal terms and legal policy, as well as lawmaking, law
enforcement, legal practice and legal relations. Each of these components is
an independent object of semiotic-legal analysis (Pavlyshyn, 2017).
The interrelationships of legal semiotics with the legal ontology are
mutually benecial to the extent that law is a part and manifestation of
being. Through this interaction, the semiotics of law retains the status of
ontological knowledge, which allows it to independently assess the legal
reality, not just to study the processes of legal knowledge and reect on the
work of lawyers, because it is during the ontological order that the main
knot between special scientic understanding of law.
Important for the transformation of the existing legal being into the
proper is the gurative-conceptual model of legal reality, a signicant role in
the formation of which in the minds of legal people play legal signs, because
they play a signicant role in managing the transformation of reality into
human legal consciousness. activity (Balinska, 2013).
We can summarize that legal semiotics interacts dialectically with the
legal ontology, they mutually permeate, condition each other and can be
considered as independent of each other only theoretically, in abstraction.
Conclusions
Thus, what is stated in the scientic article allows us to conclude that
the semiotics of law has organic direct and indirect relationships with all
major subdisciplines of philosophy of law –legal ontology, epistemology,
anthropology, axiology and praxeology, as well as representations. modern
methodology of law. The concept and reasoning of these philosophical
and legal disciplines have a form and meaning. Legal semiotics explores
the symbolic form of their concepts and considerations, and each of these
disciplines - a specic content of its eld. Legal semiotics is dialectically
related to other philosophical and legal disciplines as form and content. In
104 Oleg Bandura, Oleksandr Lytvynov, Sergiy Maksymov, Oleg Pavlyshyn y Irina Smaznova
Semiotics of law in modern philosophical and legal research
addition, there are a number of other «channels» of interrelations of the
semiotics of law with other subdisciplines of the philosophy of law.
Above conclusions can be somewhat detailed and presented in the form
of scientic theses.
The semiotics of law is organically linked to legal anthropology. In their
activities, a person can not do without the use of appropriate signs, symbols.
On the other hand, for their full understanding it is necessary to take into
account that they are a means of legal activity, human activity as a legal
entity. A legal person creates legal signs, however, and legal signs create a
legal person, his worldview is a system of legal signs.
Legal semiotics is correlated with legal praxeology as a part and a whole
– legal signs are a means of legal activity; on the other hand, without legal
signs, legal activity is impossible and the nature of the signs used in the
activity to some extent determines the nature and eectiveness of the
activity. Semiotic-legal analysis of such legal sign constructions as «legal
activity», «legal activity», «administrative activity in the eld of law» etc.
can give important results.
Legal semiotics is a necessary component of legal cognition, cognitive
legal activity. It claries the idea of the limits of application of forms and
methods of cognition, developed by general epistemology and epistemology
of law and methods. The epistemology of law is enriched by semiotic-legal
approaches that allow to reveal those aspects of legal life that can not be
reproduced in any other way, produce a special knowledge of law.
The organic relationship between the semiotics of law and axiology is
manifested in the fact that the axiology of law, exploring the values in the
legal eld, works with the meanings of signs. Signs, symbols are a means of
legal activity, and values determine its goals. Axiology of law and semiotics
of law are part of the praxeology of law. The latter is also part of the latter.
These two philosophical and legal disciplines are correlated as part of one
whole – legal praxeology.
The dialectical connection between legal semiotics and ontology is
that legal signs, symbols are part of legal existence, legal reality because
they exist. In this regard, legal semiotics is part of the legal ontology. On
the other hand, the legal ontology can be a component of legal semiotics,
because for man as a legal being, all legal existence is a system of symbols.
Semiotic analysis of the problems of legal reality is important, which
demonstrates the logic of its construction, systemic and structural
connections, reveals the internal mechanisms and symbolic patterns of
its development. In the process of transforming the existing legal being
into a proper one, a gurative role is played by the gurative-conceptual
model of legal reality, the construction of which is impossible without the
participation of legal signs.
105
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Esta revista fue editada en formato digital y publicada
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Vol.40 Nº 72