Fachtermini in der Rechtssprache — Lehrbefugnis und Lehrbefähigung im Hochschulrecht. Zur Bedeutung und Verwendung der Fachwörter in der Textsorte Habilitationsordnung

Abstract

Terminology in legal language — Lehrbefugnis teaching license and Lehrbefähigung teaching qualification in higher law education. On the meaning and use of technical terms in the habilitation regulation text type

The subject of this paper is the semantics of the German lexemes Lehrbefähigung and Lehrbefugnis in habilitation regulations at selected universities in the Federal Republic of Germany. The habilitation regulation is a legal text type and it is expected that the meaning of the technical terms it contains is clear. In fact, the analysis has shown that this cannot be said of Lehrbefähigung and Lehrbefugnis. In particular, the semantics of Lehrbefähigung is very blurred. In some cases this expression means an inherent human characteristic that is determined and certified by an external instance, in other cases the attestation of this ability. In a particular case, Lehrbefähigung was even equated with Lehrbefugnis venia legendi. The semantics of Lehrbefugnis venia legendi / docendi however, which is understood as permission to offer and perform courses at a university, seems to be clear. Our analysis can be helpful when designing the legal texts for higher education.