Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-t5tsf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-16T15:20:49.534Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

1 - Interpretation and Statutory Interpretation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 December 2020

Douglas Walton
Affiliation:
University of Windsor, Ontario
Fabrizio Macagno
Affiliation:
Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Portugal
Giovanni Sartor
Affiliation:
Università di Bologna
Get access

Summary

The English word “interpretation” comes from Latin interpretatio, from interpres, originally meaning an intermediary, broker, or agent, and then also an explainer or translator (De Vaan 2008, 307). In its turn interpres seems to have resulted from the fusion of inter (between) and praes, a word that possibly shares the same root with the Latin pretium (price), thus being linked to the idea of an economic exchange (lending, buying, or selling). The semantic area of “interpretation” is also covered by terms of Greek origin, such as “exegesis” and “hermeneutics,” often used in religious contexts.

Type
Chapter
Information
Statutory Interpretation
Pragmatics and Argumentation
, pp. 17 - 54
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

References

Abaelardus, Petrus. 1970. Dialectica. Edited by Marie de Rijk, Lambertus. Assen, Netherlands: Van Gorcum.Google Scholar
Abbott, Martin Lee. 2016. Using Statistics in the Social and Health Sciences with SPSS and Excel. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.Google Scholar
Alexy, Robert. 1989. A Theory of Legal Argumentation: The Theory of Rational Discourse as Theory of Legal Justification. Edited by McCormick, Neil and Adler, Ruth. Oxford, UK: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Alexy, Robert. 2002. The Argument from Injustice. A Reply to Legal Positivism. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Alexy, Robert, and Dreier, Ralf. 1991. “Statutory interpretation in the Federal Republic of Germany.” In Interpreting Statutes. A Comparative Study, edited by MacCormick, Neil and Summers, Robert, 73121. Aldershot, UK: Dartmouth.Google Scholar
Bacon, Francis. 2000. The New Organon [Novum Organum, 1627]. Edited by Jardine, Lisa and Silverthorne, Michael. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Balkin, Jack M. 2018. “Arguing about the constitution: The topics in constitutional interpretation.Constitutional Commentary 33: 145255.Google Scholar
Barak, Aharon. 2007. Purposive Interpretation in Law. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Beccaria, Cesare. 1764. Dei Delitti e delle Pene. Livorno. Livorno, Italy: Coltellini.Google Scholar
Bobbitt, Philip. 1982. Constitutional Fate: Theory of the Constitution. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Bobbitt, Philip. 1991. Constitutional Interpretation. Oxford, UK: Blackwell Publishers Ltd.Google Scholar
Bongiovanni, Giorgio, and Valentini, Chiara. 2018. “Balancing, proportionality and constitutional rights.” In Handbook of Legal Reasoning and Argumentation, edited by Bongiovanni, Giorgio, Postema, Gerald, Rotolo, Antonino, Sartor, Giovanni, Valentini, Chiara, and Walton, Douglas, 581612. Dordrecht, Netherlands: Springer.Google Scholar
Cicero, Marcus Tullius. 1999. On the Commonwealth and on the Laws. Edited by Zetzel, James. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Conte, Rosaria, and Castelfranchi, Cristiano. 2006. “The mental path of norms.Ratio Juris 19(4): 501517. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467–9337.2006.00342.x.Google Scholar
Dascal, Marcelo, and Jerzy, Wróblewski. 1988. “Transparency and doubt: Understanding and interpretation in pragmatics and in law.Law and Philosophy 7(2): 203224. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00144156.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davies, Stephen. 2007. Philosophical Perspectives on Art. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Dennett, Daniel. 1997. “True believers: The intentional stance and why it works.” In Mind Design II: Philosophy, Psychology, and Artificial Intelligence, edited by Haugeland, John, 5779. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dilthey, Wilhelm. 1989. Selected Works. Volume I: Introduction to the Human Sciences. Edited by Makkreel, Rudolf and Rodi, Frithjof. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Dworkin, Ronald. 1985. “Is there really no right answer in hard cases?” In A Matter of Principle, edited by Dworkin, Ronald, 119145. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Fish, Stanley. 1989. Doing What Comes Naturally: Change, Rhetoric, and the Practice of Theory in Literary and Legal Studies. Oxford, UK: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Freud, Sigmund. 1965. The Interpretation of Dreams [Die Traumdeutung, 1900]. New York, NY: Avon Books.Google Scholar
Fuller, Lon. 1957. “Positivism and fidelity to law – A reply to Professor Hart.Harvard Law Review 71(4): 630672.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fuller, Lon. 1981. The Principles of Social Order. Edited by Winston, Kenneth. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.Google Scholar
Gadamer, Hans-Georg. 1989. Truth and Method. Edited by Weinsheimer, Joel and Marshall, Donald. New York, NY: Continuum.Google Scholar
Galilei, Galileo. 1960. “The assayer [Il Saggiatore, 1623].” In The Controversy on the Comets of 1618, edited by Drake, Stillman and O’Malley, Charles Donald, 151336. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press.Google Scholar
Grice, Paul. 1975. “Logic and conversation.” In Syntax and Semantics 3: Speech Acts, edited by Cole, Peter and Morgan, Jerry, 4158. New York, NY: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Grice, Paul. 1969. “Utterer’s meaning and intention.” The Philosophical Review 78(2): pp. 147177.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Guastini, Riccardo. 2011. Interpretare e Argomentare. Milano, Italy: Giuffrè.Google Scholar
Guastini, Riccardo. 2015. “A realistic view on law and legal cognition.Revus. Journal for Constitutional Theory and Philosophy of Law/Revija Za Ustavno Teorijo in Filozofijo Prava, 27: 4554. https://doi.org/10.4000/revus.3304Google Scholar
Hart, Herbert Adolphus, Lionel. 1958. “Positivism and the separation of law and morals.” Harvard Law Review 71(4): 593629.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Heck, Philipp. 1914. “Gesetzesauslegung und Interessenjurisprudenz.Archiv Für Die Civilistische Praxis 112(1): 1318.Google Scholar
Holmes, Oliver Wendell. 1899. “The theory of legal interpretation.Harvard Law Review 12: 417420. https://doi.org/10.2307/1321531.Google Scholar
Jhering, Rudolf von. 1913. Law as a Means to an End. Boston, MA: The Boston Book Company.Google Scholar
Kelsen, Hans. 1967. Pure Theory of Law. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Llewellyn, Karl. 1949. “Remarks on the theory of appellate decision and the rules or canons about how statutes are to be construed.Vanderbilt Law Review 3: 395406.Google Scholar
Macagno, Fabrizio, and Walton, Douglas. 2015. “Classifying the patterns of natural arguments.Philosophy and Rhetoric 48(1): 2653. https://doi.org/10.1353/par.2015.0005.Google Scholar
Macagno, Fabrizio, and Walton, Douglas. 2017. “Arguments of statutory interpretation and argumentation schemes.International Journal of Legal Discourse 2(1): 4783.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
MacCormick, Neil. 2005. Rhetoric and the Rule of Law. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
MacCormick, Neil, and Summers, Robert, eds. 1991. Interpreting Statutes: A Comparative Study. Aldershot, UK: Dartmouth.Google Scholar
Marmor, Andrei. 2002. “Exclusive legal positivism.” In The Oxford Handbook of Jurisprudence and Philosophy of Law, edited by Coleman, Jules, Himma, Kenneth Einar, and Shapiro, Scott, 105124. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Marmor, Andrei. 2008. “The pragmatics of legal language.Ratio Juris 21(4): 423452. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467–9337.2008.00400.x.Google Scholar
McElduff, Siobhán. 2009. “Living at the level of the word: Cicero’s rejection of the interpreter as translator.Translation Studies 2(2): 133146.Google Scholar
Newman, Randy, Forbes, Kelly, and Connolly, John. 2012. “Event-related potentials and magnetic fields associated with spoken word.” In The Cambridge Handbook of Psycholinguistics, edited by Spivey, Michael, McRae, Ken, and Joanisse, Marc, 127156. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Pattaro, Enrico. 2005. The Law and the Right. Dordrecht, Netherlands: Springer.Google Scholar
Patterson, Dennis. 1996. Law and Truth. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pearl, Judea. 2000. Causality: Models, Reasoning and Inference. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Peczenik, Aleksander. 2005. Scientia Juris: Legal Doctrine as Knowledge of Law and as a Source of Law. Dordrecht, Netherlands: Springer.Google Scholar
Perelman, Chaïm. 1979. Logique Juridique. Nouvelle Réthorique. Paris, France: Dalloz.Google Scholar
Pino, Giorgio. 2013. “Interpretazione cognitiva, interpretazione decisoria, interpretazione creativa.Rivista di Filosofia del Diritto 2(1): 77102.Google Scholar
Rener, Frederick. 1989. Interpretatio: Language and Translation from Cicero to Tytler. Leiden, Netherlands: Brill.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sartor, Giovanni. 2018. “Defeasibility in law.” In Handbook of Legal Reasoning and Argumentation, edited by Bongiovanni, Giorgio, Postema, Gerald, Rotolo, Antonino, Sartor, Giovanni, Valentini, Chiara, and Walton, Douglas, 315364. Dordrecht, Netherlands: Springer.Google Scholar
Savigny, Friedrich Carl von. 1840. System des Heutigen Römischen Rechts. Berlin, Germany:Veit, .Google Scholar
Searle, John. 2007. “Grice on meaning: 50 years later.Teorema: Revista Internacional de Filosofía 26(2): 918.Google Scholar
Soames, Scott. 2013. “Deferentialism: A post-originalist theory of legal interpretation.Fordham Law Review 82: 597617.Google Scholar
Solum, Lawrence. 2009. “District of Columbia v. Heller and originalism.Northwestern University Law Review 103(2): 923982.Google Scholar
Sunstein, Cass, and Vermeule, Adrian. 2003. “Interpretation and institutions.Michigan Law Review 101(4): 885951.Google Scholar
Tarello, Giovanni. 1980. L’Interpretazione della Legge. Milano, Italy: Giuffrè.Google Scholar
Vaan, Michiel De. 2008. Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the Other Italic Languages. Leiden, Netherlands, and Boston, MA: Brill.Google Scholar
Walton, Douglas, and Sartor, Giovanni. 2013. “Teleological justification of argumentation schemes.Argumentation 27(2): 111142. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10503-012–9262-y.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weber, Max. 1978. Economy and Society: An Outline of Interpretative Sociology. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.Google Scholar

Cases cited

ACLU v. Clapper 2015 785 F.3d 787.

Church of the Holy Trinity v. United States 1892 143 U.S. 457.

District of Columbia v. Heller 2008. 554 U.S. 570.

Dunnachie v. Kingston-upon-Hull City Council 2004 UKHL 36.

Google Spain SL and Google Inc. v. Agencia Española de Protección de Datos (AEPD) and Mario Costeja González 2014 ECLI:EU:C:2014:317.

Rewe-Zentral v. Bundesmonopolverwaltung für Branntwein 1979 ECLI:EU:C:1979:42.

Roe v. Wade 1973. 410 U.S. 113.

Scarlet Extended SA v. Sabam 2012 ECLI:EU:C:2011:771.

X 2013, Case C-486/12, ECLI:EU:C:2013:836.

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×