Zur Sprache gebracht: Rechtsvereinheitlichung in Europa

Abstract

European lawyers who favour greater harmonisation of laws tend to minimise the fact that such process necessarily relies on language. Drawing on translation theory, this paper shows how the inherently local character of language resists moves towards the establishment of uniform laws and how no uniform law, irrespective of the language in which it is written, can account for local legal experience. This analysis thus allows the author to highlight the inherent limits of the ongoing harmonization process in Europe