Abstract
In this study two general theses are presented. In the first thesis—about integral character of traffic signs—it is proposed to stop treating traffic signs as only a subsidiary (illustrative) instruments—an alternatives to written linguistic utterances. It is shown that the construction of legal regulations of road traffic justifies the thesis that traffic signs are in fact an integral part of certain provisions and encoded norms, and not just a way of communicating them. This integral character and the fact that traffic signs as a means of visual-nonlinguistic communication have specific features which are extremely difficult to verbalize in an accurate, intelligible, and concise manner (e.g., angles, pictograms, or ideograms) or are even impossible to verbalize (colors) leads to second thesis—about inadequacy of concept of legal norm as a linguistic utterance in context of traffic signs. Concepts of interpretation of law which adopt a vision that legal norm (reconstructed from legal provisions—linguistic utterances of specific properties included in texts of legal acts) is an object of purely linguistic nature are inadequate, when one considers, for example, some of the provisions of Road Traffic Law, which refer to traffic signs. Their example clearly shows that in contemporary legal orders one can find legal norms, which cannot be accurately and intelligibly presented only with words. Thus, if the result of the interpretation of certain legal provisions must be made not only with words but also with broadly understood graphics, the cited concepts of interpretation of law cannot be actually realized in all of the instances. This makes them inadequate from the perspective of whole legal order.
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Notes
- 1.
- 2.
Briefly on functions of visualizations of law, see, Wahlgren (2012, p. 22).
- 3.
Characteristic features and functions of visual communication are discussed by, e.g., Boehme-Neßler (2011, pp. ix, 52, 55–57, 58–71, 74–75, 77, 80–81, 129, 151, 183).
- 4.
See, e.g., Polish Regulation of the Minister of Internal Affairs of 29 December 2011 on the determining the designs of mandatory, prohibitory, information and warning signs applied in the mountains and organized ski areas—Journal of Laws 2011, no. 295, item 1751. All legal acts and their provisions mentioned in this study are in force at the date of 30 January 2014.
- 5.
- 6.
The role of the placement of a sign is noticed also by other scholars, e.g., Wagner (2006, pp. 318–319).
- 7.
See, e.g., Article 7 paragraph 1 of the Polish Law of 20 June 1997—Road Traffic Law—Journal of Laws 1997, no. 98, item 602—reads as follows “Traffic signs and signals express warnings, prohibitions, orders or information”; see also Regulation of Ministers of Infrastructure and Internal Affairs and Administration of 31 July 2002 on the traffic signs and signals—Journal of Laws 2002, no. 170, item 1393—which accompanies Polish Road Traffic Law and includes sign-types of traffic signs and signals.
- 8.
See, e.g., Wagner (2006, pp. 311–312), who treats traffic signs as a kind of substitute for written linguistic expressions.
- 9.
See above, footnote 7.
- 10.
Term used after Beck (1988, p. 11).
- 11.
E.g., in Polish legal science such an approach is adopted in the so-called derivative concept of interpretation of law, see Zieliński (2010, p. 14).
- 12.
In context of concept of legal norm as a linguistic utterance, the description of each sign individually, and not just general common characteristics of given kind of traffic signs (like their shape or color palette) would be necessary in order to, i.a., avoid a potential problem connected with false signs. Namely, someone can, for example, for a prank, produce and place at a given site a sign which looks like a kind of traffic sign (e.g., has the same shape, size and color palette), but is not included in the catalogue from a particular legal regulation. In such a situation, reconstructed legal norm, in which content relevant traffic signs are only generally specified, and not individually described, can be regarded as incorrect. Hypothetically, such insufficiently specified legal norm could be applied to the infinite number of false signs, which could be similar to traffic signs, but, legally speaking, are not traffic signs. Needless to say is that it could have the potential to cause negative situations for law’s addressees and to be detrimental to legal certainty.
- 13.
E.g., cow in Polish sign A-18a—see, Fig. 27.1—represents not only cows, but also other livestock.
- 14.
On the pictograms and ideograms in traffic signs, see Kjørup (2004, p. 3506).
- 15.
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Dudek, M. (2015). Why are Words not Enough? Or a Few Remarks on Traffic Signs. In: Araszkiewicz, M., Banaś, P., Gizbert-Studnicki, T., Płeszka, K. (eds) Problems of Normativity, Rules and Rule-Following. Law and Philosophy Library, vol 111. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-09375-8_27
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