Commissive Modality of International Legal Discourse: An Implicit Mitigation of the Bindingness

This research focuses on the problem of correlation between discursive modality and illocutionary force - with substantiating variations in as a pragmatic basis for scale-paradigm deontic modality, influencing binding international instruments. Guided by criterion explicitness implicitness markers, well their localization performative or propositional part, paper categorizes five classes commissives relation to speech acts: direct commissives, hedged indirect implied commissives. Direct when preserve verbs self-commitment while contain hedge structures means generalization scaling down strength commissive associating commitments. Indirect are bicomponent acts, combining either expressive-commissive assertive-commissive forces. rank at penultimate last levels scale modality. They devoid phrase subject designating implementation obligations. Predicates meanings ‘necessity’ ‘requirement’ indirectly mark obligations assumed whereas passive structures, nominalization, hedges, generalization, other markers decreased associated de-intensify such legal discourse.