The Language of the Law as a Sign and a Symbol

The symbolic functions of law are those that the law fulfils by being used and interpreted as a symbol, that is, by shifting to the ‘symbolic mode’—a way of using legal texts that considers them as referring to much more ample content than the first layer of meaning, consisting of legal relations. A morally neutral, observer-relative definition of ‘symbolic legislation’ is offered here, as legislation where the symbolic functions prevail, in the sense that they are considered as more important; for instance, on account of the lawmakers’ supposed ‘symbolic behaviour’ and their purposive exploitation of such functions. Moreover, the concept of symbolic legislation is distinguished from those of strategic legislative communication and communicative legislation. Lastly, an example of the exploitation of ordinary non-technical language in Italian pandemic regulations is shown to be a clue of the possible symbolic character of at least some of those regulations.