Benedikt Pirker (University of Fribourg) has posted Kelsen Meets Cognitive Science – The Pure Theory of Law, Interpretation, and Modern Cognitive Pragmatics (Forthcoming, Archiv für Rechts- und Sozialphilosophie 2019) on SSRN. Here is the abstract:
The present paper examines Kelsen’s take on interpretation in the framework of his Pure Theory of Law and contrasts it with later legal theoretical perspectives on interpretation and the findings of modern cognitive linguistics and pragmatics. A nuanced picture emerges. Kelsen’s views on the inevitability of interpretation withstand scrutiny, whereas his “frame” conceptualization of language appears wanting in light of modern knowledge on the operation of language in communication. By comparison, nonetheless, some later theoretical contributions such as literalist approaches see their foundations questioned even more fundamentally.