© Copyright 1998 – Fernando Galindo - 111 - THE COMMUNICATIVE CONCEPT OF LAW Fernando Galindo Introduction One possible means of clarifying the encounters between legal cultures is the building and development of new concepts. Of particular value for this purpose is the communicative concept of law. This paper treats the characteristics and practical consequences of the concept by an account of one example of its application, having first considered cultural plurality as the point of departure and the normal context today for discussion of terminology in the Sociology of Law. According to this concept law is essentially the activity of jurists in relation to legal texts. Cultural Plurality Old solutions do not serve in times of crisis such as the present, when concepts themselves are being questioned. Indeed, we can go further and say that it is difficult even to discuss existing concepts. During such times neither old nor new concepts suffice. Some commentators have even suggested that we must renounce any construction that might explain life in general in a society as complex as today’s and that we should limit ourselves to making a hermeneutic of everyday things. 1 1 This position has been markedly developed in legal theory, but also in the sociology of law. An example of a reasoned approximation to the view can be found in Shiner (1992). This author establishes the basis for a non-conventional theory of law, arguing that a metatheory of legal theories can demonstrate that the theory of law itself is, in a way similar to that of professional practice, in a constant process of movement and adjustment between theories which extol the principles of certainty and procedure and those which extol the principles of flexibility and substance