Law is traditionally conceived as consisting of norms of conduct and power-conferring norms. This conception, however, is unable to account for a variety of elements of modern legal systems that differ significantly from the classical notions. This book concerns the problem of which results of human activity can obtain legal validity. The author makes use of recent findings in speech act theory, especially John R. Searle and Daniel Vanderveken's illocutionary logic. He sets out a theory of legal norms conceived as institutional legal facts resulting from performances of speech acts specified...