Abstract
Peirce, introduced here as the first godfather of semiotics, claims (like de Saussure) that signs—strung together in a manner prescribed by rules—communicate meaning.Coded texts are thus signs to decode for a reader, and the decoding touches the essence of the magic of legal language.Kevelson gave law a Peircean frame when highlighting in various publications how the entire notion of a legal system consists of interrelating communicative processes between discourse and practice, and functions almost universally as a model of dialogic thought.Peirce knew about the problems with legal interpretation, reference activities in legal discourse, causality in law and the debates on the status of facts in law.But that is certainly not enough to describe a direct, non-philosophical and jurisprudentially relevant thought pattern of Peirce on legal semiotics. In his philosophy, the semiotic background remains general although extremely relevant for law.The chapter traces developments from philosophy, signs, semiotics and meanings related to law.It shows how Peirce texts fascinate because of their links to an encompassing process of semiosis, which is relevant for lawyers.