Language as a Medium of Legal Norms.

Inhaltsübersicht: 1. Introduction - 2. Basic legal and linguistic issues regarding Arabic and Islam: Historical background: Middle East and North Africa - Religious background: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam - Legal background: Islamic law - Linguistic background: Arabic - Summary of Chapter Two - 3. The theory of interpretation: Legal and linguistic interpretation - The Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties - Speech Act Theory - A typology of diplomatic misunderstanding - Summary of Chapter Three - 4. Application of the theory of interpretation to the realm of war and peace: Overview of problems - The Palestine conflict ("Middle East conflict") - The Iraq-Kuwait crisis - The Iraqi concepts of "law", "truth", "peace", and "justice": a comparative analysis of the traditional methods of treaty interpretation and Speech Act Theory - Summary of Chapter Four - 5. Application of the theory of interpretation to the realm of human rights: Overview of problems - The periodic reports submitted to international treaty bodies - The Islamic concept of "equality": a comparative analysis of the traditional methods of treaty interpretation and Speech Act Theory - Evaluation of the arguments - Summary of Chapter Five - 6. Case study: application of the theory of interpretation to the definition of "ethnic, religious, and linguistic minorities" in UN documents: Overview of problems - Problems in the discussions of the treaty bodies - Case study: the Turkish-Kurdish conflict - Analysis: application of Speech Act Theory - Summary of Chapter Six - 7. Conclusion: General observations - Legal aspects - Linguistic aspects - Summary of Chapter Seven - Appendix: Analytical catalogue of data and sources - References - Index of names and subjects