Publisher's Synopsis
In various disciplines, the idea of a 'history of concepts' sparked off innovative research processes after 1945. By contrast, the subject of 'language and the law' harks back to a much older tradition. With reference to the Age of Enlightenment the present volume tests the appositeness of these two approaches by applying them to a number of different issues: problems of terminology in Wolff, Mendelssohn and Kant; the emergence of special languages in Leibniz; legal language and lexicography; the (linguistic) treatment of minorities; legal writing and hermeneutics in the 18th century; enlightened tendencies in legal language; literary transpositions of legal terminologies. The volume sets out to achieve a synthesis between methodological innovation and concrete analysis of source material.
