La Structure performative du langage juridique by Georges A. Legault (review)

4 82 LETTERS IN CANADA 1977 permettra de carriger les dictionnaires franc;ais sur la datation de certains mots et cite l'exemple de pomme de terre employe au Canada des 1749, tandis que 'Ie FEW ... Ie BW5, etc.' ne Ie font remonter qu'a 1754 (p 63). Or Ie Petit Robert et Ie Lexis, par exemple, l'attestent deja en 1716. L'utilisateur du TLFQ saura gre a ses auteurs de l'index des mots (dans Ie dictionnaire, les mots seront regroupes par familles) qui se trouvera a la fin de l'ouvrage. Il est a esperer qu'a !'instar du Franziisisches etymologisches Wiirterbuch (FEW), dont s'inspire en partie Ie TLFQ, ce sera un index des formes. Nalls terminons en felicitant Juneau de son initiative et en lui souhaitant bon courage pour mener }'entreprise abonne fin dans la dizaine d'annees qu'il se donne. (T.R. WOOLDRIDGE) Georges A. Legault. La Structure perfonnative du langage juridique Les Presses de l'Universite de Montreal. 522 Although the title clearly indicates the author's preoccupation with language and law, it may be somewhat misleading, in so far as the orientation of his work is above aU philosophical. Legault tries to link the system of law and jurisprudence with the linguistic theories - or one should perhaps say, rather, the philosophy of language - presented by J.L. Austin and J. Searle. In the first section of the three into which the book is divided, law theories by H. Kelsen, A. Ross, K. Olivekrona, and H.L.A. Hart are examined thoroughly in their connection with the performative act. This creates a certain tension, as the law specialist should read the second section before studying the first, whereas the linguist is baffled by the unfamiliar mixture of the interpretation of the law and the epistemology of the linguistic sign. The question around which the first as well as the second section revolves is that of the creation of a situation or a responsibility by purely linguistic means. 'I promise' creates the situalion of a promise, whereas 'I walk' does not create the act of walking. From a purely linguistic point of view the performative act takes its place in a framework of discourse analysis that studies the impact and implications of different types of linguistic messages. It is here that the connection with law comes into focus. If the impact on an interlocutor is such that it influences his behaviour, while the promise is not carried out, does one still speak of a performalive act? AU the intricacies of deliberately false and inadvertently incorrect promises are studied against the background of norm and usage as weU as of legal implications. The third section studies Quebec and French law systems (with a few excursions into federal law and Haitian legislation) from the point of view of performalive linguistics, and of the law philosophies discussed in the first section. HUMANITIES 483 Legault combines law, language, and philosophy in an impressive way. For a linguist the legal discussions are at times slightly overwhelming , and presumably the same holds when law specialists are faced with the linguistic problems that Legault discusses. He limits himself here to English-language sources and does not mention the work done in the area of performative, illocutionary, and perlocutionary speech acts by the Parisian scholar Oswald Ducrot. English quotations predominate in the philosophical and theoretical law passages, but French is the main language in the third section. A recurring German example in which sprechen is opposed to versprechen puzzles me, and I think that sprecllen should be replaced by sagen. But I may be wrong, as the example introduces somebody who does not speak German very well. In any case, the lack of clarity in this very minor detail is mentioned only because it is a rare exception, in this interesting study of more than five hundred pages, that addresses itself to linguists and lawyers alike. It may be that by straddling these fields it will satisfy neither group of readers completely. (HENRY G. SCHOGT) Robin S. Harris. A History of Higher Education in Cmzada 1663-1960 University of Toronto Press 1976. xxiv, 715- $37·50 Hugh A. Stevenson and J...