A Tale of Two Remedies: Equity, Verb Aspect and the Whorfian Hypothesis (Legal Semiotics Monographs) (Paperback)

The focus of this present work is on the legal domain that deals with remedies, and partly with some historical development; it does not be deal in any depth with the other legal domains. Moreover, the book does not treat the topic in the conventional way, the way that lawyers and legal theorists expect issues of equitable remedies to be discussed. The aim of this work is to discuss and explain, using a linguistic approach, judicial decisions in questions of the issuing of injunctions and the ordering of specific performance in the Anglo-American legal system. The linguistic domain that is in the centre of discussion is that of verb aspect. However, a linguistic approach does not mean that the present work is concerned with language of the law, with the problems of legal style, with plain language movements, or with associated fields. On the contrary, these topics are not relevant. The purpose is to explain a legal phenomenon by means of the distinction between the two principal verb aspectsJQ the perfective and the imperfective. The analysis and application of the set of relevant linguistic features take place against the background of a question that has occupied linguists (as well as sociologists and anthropologists) for a very long timeJQ whether language reflects reality or whether reality is seen to a large extent only through language (the so-called RWhorfian hypothesisS).

Part One of the work, RThe Whorfian Hypothesis and RemediesS, consists, apart from the introduction (Chapter One), of chapters that deal with the linguistic side of the arguments presented, that is with the aspectual distinctions that are found in modern languages in terms of semantics and syntax, especially in English (Chapter Two); with the Whorfian hypothesis itself, both from a supporting and from a critical point-of-view; with the historical development of the aspectual distinction in late Middle English, i.e. the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries (Chapter Three); and with a late medieval chancery case as an illustration of some of the arguments proposed in favour of a limited application of the Whorfian hypothesis (Chapter Four).

In the second Part, RVerb Aspect and RemediesS, a model will be proposed combining the linguistics of verb aspect and the legal status of the two types of remedies under discussionJQ legal and equitable (Chapter Five). To support the argument that verb aspect may be a factor behind the decisions of courts in questions of remedies, the model will be applied firstly to two classical cases, one American and the second English (Chapter Six), and then it will be applied to four modern English and American cases (Chapter Seven).