This article introduces the conceptual apparatus of Friedrich Müller's Structuring Legal Theory (Strukturierende Rechtslehre), developed in Germany since 1966 and widely received in Brazilian legal methodology, into Russian-language legal linguistics. Russian legal theory traditionally treats the language of a normative act as the form of expressing the legislator's will, and interpretation as the ascertainment of a meaning already contained in the text. Müller's Structuring Theory of Law proposes a different model: the legal norm is not contained in the statutory text in a ready-made form and cannot be extracted through interpretation; it is produced in a structured process of concretization, every stage of which constitutes methodologically disciplined work with language. The article reconstructs the key structural elements of this process: normative text (Normtext), norm programme (Normprogramm), and norm area (Normbereich), showing how they transform the classical model of statutory interpretation into a model of norm-production. Particular attention is given to the linguistic dimension: concretization is described as a sequence of text levels, legal meaning is understood not as a discoverable semantic object but as a result fixed through legal argumentation, and legal language is presented as an arena for semantic conflicts. For legal linguistics as a discipline, Müller's theory opens a transition from the analysis of isolated legal texts to the analysis of textual operations: selection, reformulation, semantic stabilization, and argumentatively justified fixation of meaning. The concluding part examines European Union multilingual law as a test case confirming the productivity of Müller's approach.
The paper examines the specific features of the representation of the concept of «свобода» in the English and Russian languages across legal and everyday discourses. The significance of the study stems from the need to describe the linguistic mechanisms that facilitate distinct interpretations of the closely related lexemes freedom and liberty within the Anglophone legal tradition, as well as their influence on the perception of freedom in the Russian-speaking communicative environment. The purpose of the study is to describe the mechanisms of transformation in the meaning of the Russian lexeme «свобода» (freedom) under the influence of Anglo-American legal culture. The analysis demonstrates that despite their semantic similarities, the English lexemes differ at the conceptual level: freedom denotes personal autonomy, while liberty signifies legal guarantees. The research revealed that the choice of a particular lexeme in UK and US legal texts is determined by discursive specifics and pragmatic communicative goals. Fixed collocations of the plural form with defining adjectives (public liberties, civil liberties) acquire particular significance in the process of the legalization of these lexemes. In Russian-language texts of the globalization era, semantic calques serve as the primary mechanisms for promotion of new approaches to understanding freedom. Their active integration into legal documents leads to a convergence of ideas regarding personal freedom as a legal category. Specifically, the calquing of the phrase freedom of choice («свобода выбора») reproduces the English pattern of understanding freedom as consumer comfort and individual responsibility for decision-making. The research methodology is based on the theories of semantic derivation, juridification of the lexicon, and cross-linguistic influence. The primary methods employed include definitional, contextual, and comparative analysis. The empirical foundation comprises data from explanatory dictionaries, legal documents, media materials, and Russian and English language corpora. The study concludes that the semantics of the word «свобода» is undergoing transformation: in legal discourse “freedom” functions as a term defining the limits of institutional guarantees, while in everyday discourse, a new value-based understanding of personal freedoms is emerging.
The article analyzes the linguistic features of A. P. Chekhov's crime story «Murder», which are important for understanding its themes, including moral choices and guilt, true faith and pseudo-religion, the influence of the environment on the individual, the origins of crime, and punishment as a moral, ethical, and legal category. The relevance of this research lies in the need for a comprehensive approach to studying Chekhov's work in order to identify the mechanisms of language and meaning in the context of complex religious and legal issues. The analysis of the linguistic means used by Chekhov to describe ethical and legal issues allows us to draw parallels with contemporary social and legal discussions about the boundaries of freedom of conscience, the nature of crime, and the role of the institution of punishment. It is concluded that the main means of revealing the writer's artistic idea are antithesis, the semantics of proper names, lexical repetitions, the technique of retrospective, the speech characteristics of characters that include colloquial and religious vocabulary, elements of verbal aggression, various communicative strategies and tactics, and the symbolism of the title and individual characters. The uniqueness of the writer's idiostyle lies in the combination of various linguistic means, the compositional features of the work, and the psychological depth in revealing the inner world of the characters. It is noted that the absence of direct authorial assessment and the open ending of the story allow the reader to independently interpret the relationship between ambivalent concepts such as «crime», «trial», «punishment, «guilt».
