The article is concerned with the problem of relativisation of the philosophical grounds of the legal interpretation theory. The latter include ideas about the text and reality relationships, the interpreter’s ability to cognize the meaning of the text, and ethical principles of dealing with the text, its author, and its meaning. The article is discussing the author-(logo-) centric approach to the interpretation of authoritative texts, which used to be common for medieval scholasticism and jurisprudence and was conditioned by the genealogy of these two disciplines. The authors show how the consequent proclamation of the death of the signifier (God and the Author) and the signified (sign) affected the theory of legal interpretation. It is pointed out that the semantic voluntarism of the judge-interpreter and the absence of any ethical restraints in dealing with the author, text and meaning as the main consequence of the destruction of its logocentric foundations. The metaphor of the death of the legislator is introduced, with the help of which the distrust of the legislator as a source of meaning, which is widespread in modern theories of legal interpretation, can be recorded. When applied in jurisprudence, such theoretical conceptions can generate political effects in the legal order, changing the perception of the separation of powers and the subject of sovereignty. In the conclusion, the authors defend the position of interpretative realism, which obliges the interpreter to reveal the meaning invested in the text by its author.