Abstract

The essay presents some preliminary reflections about the possible application of Umberto Eco’s semiotic theory, developed in Lector in fabula, to the functioning of legal systems, in order to strengthen the analytical tools available for legal comparison. In particular, the essay starts from the concept of the Reader Model and from the idea of the plurality of the planes of reading and highlights how there is a plurality of Readers Model also for the legal text. Subsequently, it shows how different types of Reader Model use different strategies to understand legal texts and how these strategies can have a powerful explanatory aptitude for understanding the dynamics that characterise the functioning of legal systems in practice.