EU Regulations as a Hybrid Genre

A Linguistic View of the European Democratic Deficit

By (author) Virginia Vecchiato

Book cover: EU Regulations as a Hybrid Genre

Extent: 152 pages

Publisher: V&R unipress

Subjects: Language & Linguistics, Law

Series: Interdisziplinare Verortungen der Angewandten Linguistik

Language: English

Hardback (Published)

(August 2024)

ISBN: 9783847117582

6.3 x 9.33 inches

Price: $62.00

Out of stock

Since law only exists in human language, a hybrid legal order needs hybrid tools to fulfil its prescriptive and communicative functions, i.e. a hybrid language. EU law “as a hybrid legal order sui generis or tertium compartionis, juxtaposing and combining very different legal systems, cultures and styles” (Jopek-Bosiacka 2011:26), creates a “hybrid pan-European culture grounded in EU law and the ius commune of Europe [and makes possible] the coexistence of national and EU legal culture” (Bajcic 2016: 12). This study is at the intersection of these two levels where law and culture meet terminology, or in other words, where legal and cultural principles are textualised.


The textual and linguistic construction of European law is seen as a symptom of a predictable – and indeed real – democratic deficit. At a micro level, the EU terminological hybridity that characterises the source and target texts is directly linked to this legal hybridity: since law only exists in human language, a hybrid legal order needs hybrid tools to fulfil its prescriptive and communicative functions, i.e. a hybrid language. EU law “as a hybrid legal order sui generis or tertium compartionis, juxtaposing and combining very different legal systems, cultures and styles” (Jopek-Bosiacka 2011:26), creates a “hybrid pan-European culture grounded in EU law and the ius commune of Europe [and makes possible] the coexistence of national and EU legal culture” (Bajcic 2016: 12). This study is at the intersection of these two levels where law and culture meet terminology, or in other words, where legal and cultural principles are textualised.

  • By (author) Virginia Vecchiato