Mistakes of defining terms found in legal acts

Abstract

This study analyses canons of defining terms in legal acts, especially mistake such as idem per idem and ignotum per ignotum. The former is made when the defined word is repeated in clarification. The latter is committed when an unknown word is defined using another unknown word without explaining what any of them means. It is commonly accepted that avoidance of such mistakes is paramount during the regulation process. However, many examples are found in polish legal acts of different ranks where this postulate has not been retained. This paper aims to present those examples and analyze whether the definiendum’s repetition in definiens plays merely an esthetic part or is it a semantic one that is inconsistent with correct defining canons.