diff --git a/yamllint/cli.py b/yamllint/cli.py
index 3ba480974..098e0a163 100644
--- a/yamllint/cli.py
+++ b/yamllint/cli.py
@@ -28,20 +28,6 @@
 from yamllint.config import YamlLintConfig, YamlLintConfigError
 from yamllint.linter import PROBLEM_LEVELS
 
-
-def determine_encoding(file_path):
-    with open(file_path, 'rb')
-    if isinstance(self.raw_buffer, bytes):
-        if self.raw_buffer.startswith(codecs.BOM_UTF16_LE):
-            self.raw_decode = codecs.utf_16_le_decode
-            self.encoding = 'utf-16-le'
-        elif self.raw_buffer.startswith(codecs.BOM_UTF16_BE):
-            self.raw_decode = codecs.utf_16_be_decode
-            self.encoding = 'utf-16-be'
-        else:
-            self.raw_decode = codecs.utf_8_decode
-            self.encoding = 'utf-8'
-
 def find_files_recursively(items, conf):
     for item in items:
         if os.path.isdir(item):