Search Results for: prototype theory

A Judgment of the Court of Justice of the European Union from the Perspective of Cognitive Theory of Prototypes: A Case Study

Dr Mateusz Zeifert

University of Silesia in Katowice

English abstract: Interpretative doubts in the application of law are usually born of discrepancies between the statutory language and the non-linguistic reality. Therefore, they pose the problem of categorization. The theory of law and legal practice have for centuries been dominated by the classical theory of categorization, according to which conceptual categories can be described by a set of sufficient and necessary features. In the 1970s, an American researcher Eleanor Rosch conducted a series of psychological experiments that led her to question the classical theory and lay the foundations for an alternative one, known as the prototype theory. According to this approach, conceptual categories are organized around the most typical exemplars (prototypes), and membership of a category is measured by similarity to the prototype. Some of the consequences of such view are that category membership is a gradable feature and that the borderlines of categories are fuzzy. The article presents an outline of the prototype theory in the version used in cognitive linguistics. Its usefulness for the theory and practice of statutory interpretation is tested on the basis of the judgment of the Court of Justice of the European Union regarding the concept of beer. In this judgment, the CJEU refused to define the concept of beer by setting requirements as to its raw material composition and ruled that beer is a product that has organoleptic characteristics of beer. This definition on the basis of classical theory appears to be tautological, however, it finds theoretical justification in the prototype theory. In conclusions, the author indicates research problems that must be taken up in order for the prototype theory to be reliably used in jurisprudence.

Keywords: categorization, semantics, prototype theory, statutory interpretation

Language: Polish

Published: Number 2(23)/2020, pp. 109-120.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.36280/AFPiFS.2020.2.109

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Issue 2/2020 of „Archiwum Filozofii Prawa i Filozofii Społecznej” is now available

We would like to invite you to read the latest issue of „Archiwum Filozofii Prawa i Filozofii Społecznej” (Journal of the Polish Section of IVR) published in Polish, and available in full open access. The issue, which focuses on legal interpretation, was edited by prof. UŚ dr hab. Sławomir Tkacz and prof. dr hab. Zygmunt Tobor.

The issue is dedicated to late Professor Maciej Zieliński. It begins with his last text ever – “Regarding Justification of Interpretive Claims” – written together with prof. US dr hab. Agnieszka Choduń,

The issue also includes following papers:

Dr hab. Adam Dyrda, Prof. dr hab. Tomasz Gizbert-Studnicki: „Limits of Interpretive Disagreements in Jurisprudence”,
Prof. dr hab. Zygmunt Tobor, Mgr Konrad Kobyliński: „Dialogical Concept of Legal Interpretation”
Dr Paweł Jabłoński, Prof. UWr dr hab. Przemysław Kaczmarek: „On an Interpreter’s Game with the Legal Text and Extratextual Factors in the Derivative Concept of Legal Interpretation”,
Prof. dr hab. Leszek Leszczyński: „On Legal Interpretation and Its Practical Dimension: The Context of Judicial Application of the Law”
Prof. UŚ dr hab. Sławomir Tkacz: „The Principle of Nullum Crimen Sine Lege as a Source for Search for the Limits of Linguistic Interpretation in Criminal Law?”
Prof. US dr hab. Olgierd Bogucki: „The Role of Values in Legal Interpretation: The Normative Approach”,
Dr Mateusz Zeifert: „A Judgment of the Court of Justice of the European Union from the Perspective of Cognitive Theory of Prototypes: A Case Study”,
Prof. UŚ dr hab. Agnieszka Bielska-Brodziak, Mgr Marek Suska: „How Are Symbolic Statutes Created? Two Case Studies”

Apart from an introduction, the issue alse features a report on a Ceremony of Professor Maciej Zieliński’s Doctoral Thesis Renewal, presented by Dr Karolina Gmerek, and a text by prof. US dr hab. Agnieszka Choduń, written in memory of Professor Maciej Zieliński.

The issue can be read HERE.