La legislación simbólica: la necesidad de una redefinición y el problema de las funciones simbólicas del derecho = Symbolic legislation: the need for a re-definition and the problem of the symbolic functions

The aim of this paper is to propose a definition of “symbolic legislation” that can embrace the most common uses of this syntagma, while discarding the value connotations (in a negative sense) that are associated with it in legal doctrine. Instead of identifying symbolic legislation in the negative, i.e. by identifying its specific shortcomings or defects, an attempt will be made to offer a definition in the positive, capable of accounting for the reference to symbolism. A redefinition will then be proposed on the basis of what will be called the “symbolic functions” of law, which prevail in symbolic laws. These functions would be fulfilled by means of a secondary sense or meaning, which is added to the primary meaning of the provisions (the meaning that concerns the establishment of Hohfeldian legal relations). But as will be seen, when it comes to identifying the secondary or symbolic meaning, the characteristics that enable it to be distinguished from the primary meaning have yet to be convincingly determined.