Values, Symbolic Legislation, and Collective Action. Regarding Il modello conversazionale by Francesca Poggi

Abstract

In this paper, the author deals with three issues, with the aim of complementing the analysis contained in Francesca Poggi’s book, with which he substantially agrees. Firstly (section 2), the author stresses that surely one of the reasons why Grice’s conversational maxims are not transferable to legal discourse is that they have been conceived for cases involving propositions and not rules. Secondly (section 3), the author proposes taking into consideration the phenomenon of symbolic legislation, which does not seem to respect conversational maxims or the principle of cooperation, but which is a very widespread practice. Finally (section 4), that the methodologically appropriate way to try to apply theories of collective action to phenomena such as legal practice is to establish clearly which are the classes of intervening subjects and the relevant actions, according to the required level of abstraction.