In considerations on the functions of law sociological, psychological, and social-philosophical problems prevail. Attention should be paid, however, also to peculiarities of the normative discourse legal in particuliar, composed of linguistic expressions functioning as acts of influencing behaviour, and belonging to a larger group of verbal acts of "doing things". The most important contribution to the theory of such acts seems to be that of J.L. Austin. In this paper we shall examine the possibilities offered by Austin's work to the study of functions of legal discourse, while attempting at making the said theory more precise and at supplementing it by the findings of the theory of law (and of the theory of norms in general). This seems worth trying the more so as so far the subject of pragmatic functions of legal expressions has remained almost untouched upon.