Construction of vague legal concepts: the LEGO® experience

This paper introduces and explains an experimental pedagogical exercise that employs LEGO® bricks to explore vague legal concepts. Drawing inspiration from the social representations paradigm, which conceptualises meaning as continuously shaped through communicative and cultural practices, I approach vagueness not as a flaw in legal language but as evidence of law’s social embeddedness and its reproduction of dominant norms and categorisations. The exercise, designed for an introductory class in courses on law and language, invites students to collaboratively build metaphorical representations of an unfamiliar legal concept using a method adapted from social representations research (hierarchical evocations) combined with LEGO® construction. Through this material and playful mode of inquiry, students confront the contingent, negotiated and contested nature of legal meaning-making, challenging traditional assumptions of legal objectivity and formalism. The paper outlines the theoretical framework underpinning the exercise, situates it within critical pedagogy and LEGO® Serious Play, and reports on insights from a recent implementation of this exercise, drawing on students’ reflections and the artefacts they produced. The findings suggest that creative, metaphor-driven learning activities can reveal the limitations and possibilities inherent in the collective construction of legal concepts, highlighting the pedagogical value of making legal meaning-making visible, tangible and open to critique.