Russian Procedural Codes: Textual Distinctiveness in Framing Legal Institutions

Considering the trends towards universalization and differentiation in procedural law, the paper hypothesises that similar patterns exist in the language of procedural law. It identifies the need to study the linguistic and textological distinctiveness of the texts of the Criminal Procedure Code, Civil Procedure Code, Arbitration Procedure Code, and Administrative Procedure Code. The study reveals certain features of the language of these laws in terms of semantics, grammar, vocabulary, syntax, and textology. Examples of homonymy, synonymy, oxymoron, violations of linguistic norms in terms of spelling and correct word order, the use of identical headings, combining heterogeneous elements into structural elements of a normative legal act, and lexical patterns are given. The normative meaning of headings is revealed; examples reflecting the problems of the structure of procedural laws are given. The author names the striking textual feature of the Criminal Procedure Code of the Russian Federation, namely Art. 5, which includes the definition of the main terms used in the law. The syntactic complication of the language of procedural laws has been noted in recent years. The lexical features of individual procedural laws are revealed, demonstrating their substantive originality. An assumption is made about the influence of the quality and features of the normative legal language on the language of judicial acts and the language of legal science.

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