Sprachliche Verfahren der Popularisierung von Rechtswissen. Zur Rekontextualisierung asylrechtlicher Grundbegriffe

In this paper, focus is upon the methods and strategies applied by a German public institution when presenting aspects of the German legislation on asylum outside the context of direct statutory communication. The recontextualization purports a change in central situational factors compared to the legislative situation. With a focus upon parts of the communication where central legal concepts are explained we investigate the dissemination process for the concepts from the basic article on asylum seeking in the German constitution. By way of the analytical concepts of Reformulate (Reformulieren), Elucidate (Erläutern) and Explain (Erklären) from Functional Pragmatics we investigate the application of different methods and possible patterns in their distribution. The investigated popularization process is characterized by dominance of clarifications concerning presupposed knowledge deemed relevant, but not expressed in the text. Actual reformulations and explanations, on the other hand, are rare.