Introduction to the Semantics of Law

This book offers an introduction to the language of law from the perspective of logical semantics. As a logical tool, Boguslaw Wolniewicz’s formal ontology of situations is adapted. The central issue addressed is the meaning of normative statements, primarily legal norms. The main outcome of the book consists in explications of several legal notions (including legal events, legal acts and legal rules) in terms of the formal ontology of situations. In addition, the book concludes that legal norms are sentences in a logical sense, so some are true, while others are false, and that their logical value does not depend on whether or not they were adopted in the law-making process. Lastly, the book contends that there are semantic relations between orders that are similar to entailment, contradiction, opposition, and sub-opposition, despite the fact that orders are not sentences in a logical sense, i.e., they are neither true nor false.The book also presents some original Wittgenstein-style deontic logics built on the first order logic. The formal results are applied to selected problems in the theory of law, including the problem of the possibility of algorithmic application of legal norms.

​Andrzej Malec is a lawyer, logician and philosopher by education. He studied philosophy and logic at the Lomonosov Moscow State University (1986-1991) and graduated in law from the University of Warsaw (1989-1993). He defended his PhD thesis, devoted to defining in law, at the University of Lodz (2000). Professionally, he is a partner in a legal firm, where he deals with law & economy issues as well as with legal argumentation strategies. He combines his professional work with research activities and academic appointments: in 1991-2012 he had been employed in Prof. Witold Marciszewski’s department of logic (1991-1997 at the University of Warsaw, Bialystok Branch; 1997-2012 at the University of Bialystok), in 2014-2015 he had been a professor and rector of the College of Public Administration in Bialystok. He is a member of the Polish Society of Logic and Philosophy of Science, where in the years 2012-2016 he had been a member of the board. Since 2000, he has also been a member of the College of the Foundation for Computer Sciences, Logic and Formalized Mathematics. In 2018, he was elected the chairman of the Foundation’s College.