Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gvvz8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-24T01:23:59.405Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

HOW A STATUTE APPLIES

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 April 2006

Barbara Baum Levenbook
Barbara Baum Levenbook
Affiliation:
North Carolina State University Department of Philosophy and Religion
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This essay presents a new theory of statutory application that is superior to two competitors. One of the competitors claims that statutory directives apply to act-tokens fitting the legislature's intention. The other holds that statutes apply to act-tokens that are of the genuine kinds named by the classifying words. These theories solve certain problems badly or not at all, respectively: (1) accounting for the capacity of statutes for epistemic guidance; and (2) avoiding literalism. Both do a limited job of accounting for the rationality of statutory promulgation. The theory developed here, social salience theory, does better on all counts. According to social salience theory, the default position is that statutes apply to act-tokens that are socially salient, given the linguistic and social contexts. The departure from that position is also social, produced by conventions to defer to experts on the statute's applications to particular cases.

Type
ARTICLES
Information
Legal Theory , Volume 12 , Issue 1 , March 2006 , pp. 71 - 112
Copyright
© 2006 Cambridge University Press

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

Alexander L. (1995) “All or Nothing at All? The Intentions of Authorities and the Authority of Intentions.” In A. Marmor, ed., Law and Interpretation: Essays in Legal Philosophy (Oxford: Oxford University Press).
Bix B. (1993) Law, Language, and Legal Determinacy (Oxford: Clarendon Press).
Blackburn S. (1984) Spreading the Word: Groundings in the Philosophy of Language (Oxford: Clarendon Press).
Brink D.O. (1988) “Legal Theory, Legal Interpretation, and Judicial Review.” Philosophy and Public Affairs 17: 105– 148.Google Scholar
Coleman J. (2001) The Practice of Principle (Oxford: Oxford University Press).
Crawford E.T. (1940) The Construction of Statutes (St. Louis, MO: Thomas Law Book Company).
Cross R. (1987) Statutory Interpretation, 2nd ed. (London: Butterworths).
Dworkin R. (1985) A Matter of Principle (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press).
Dworkin R. (1986) Law's Empire (Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press).
Finnis J. (1980) Natural Law and Natural Rights (Oxford: Clarendon Press).
Fuller L.L. (1958) “Positivism and Fidelity to Law—A Reply to Professor Hart.” Harvard Law Review 71: 661– 669.Google Scholar
Hart H.L.A. (1961) The Concept of Law (Oxford: Clarendon Press).
Lagerspetz E. (2001) “Collective Intentions, Legislative Intents, and Social Choice.” In A. Soeteman, ed., Pluralism and Law (Dordrecht: Kluwer).
Levenbook B.B. (2000) “The Meaning of a Precedent.” Legal Theory 6: 185– 240.Google Scholar
MacCallum G.C. Jr. (1993) “Legislative Intent.” In M.G. Singer and R. Martin, eds., Legislative Intent and Other Essays on Law, Politics, and Morality (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press). Originally published in Yale Law Journal 75.5 (1966): 754– 787.
MacCormick N., and R. S. Summers, eds. (1991) Interpreting Statutes (Aldershot, UK: Dartmouth).
Marmor A. (1992) Interpretation and Legal Theory (Oxford: Oxford University Press).
Miers D. (1986) “Legal Theory and the Interpretation of Statutes.” In W. Twining, ed., Legal Theory and Common Law (Oxford: Basil Blackwell).
Moore M.S. (1981) “The Semantics of Judging.” Southern California Law Review 54: 151– 294.Google Scholar
Moore M.S.. (1985) “A Natural Law Theory of Interpretation.” Southern California Law Review 58: 277– 398.Google Scholar
Postema Gerald J. (1994) “Implicit Law.” Law and Philosophy 13: 361– 387.Google Scholar
Putnam H. (1973) “Meaning and Reference.” Journal of Philosophy 70: 699– 711.Google Scholar
Raz J. (1986) The Morality of Freedom (Oxford: Oxford University Press).
Raz J.. (2001) “Two Views of the Nature of the Theory of Law: A Partial Comparison.” In J. Coleman, ed., Hart's Postscript: Essays on the Postscript to The Concept of Law (Oxford: Oxford University Press).
Schauer F. (1991) Playing by the Rules: An Examination of Rule-Based Decision-Making in Law and in Life (Oxford: Clarendon Press).
Shapiro S.J. (2001) “On Hart's Way Out.” In J. Coleman, ed., Hart's Postscript: Essays on the Postscript to The Concept of Law (Oxford: Oxford University Press).
Shapiro S.J.. (2002) “Authority.” In J. Coleman and S.J. Scott, eds., The Oxford Handbook of Jurisprudence and Philosophy of Law (Oxford: Oxford University Press).
Smith E.E. (1990) “Categorization.” In D.N. Osherson and E.E. Smith, eds., Thinking: An Invitation to Cognitive Science, vol. 3 (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press).
Stavropoulos N. (1996) Objectivity in Law (Oxford: Clarendon Press).
Sunstein C.R. (1990) “Norms in Surprising Places: The Case of Statutory Interpretation.” Ethics 100: 803– 820.Google Scholar
Tversky A., and Hutchinson J.W. (1986) “Nearest Neighbor Analysis of Psychological Spaces.” Psychological Review 93: 3– 22.Google Scholar
Waldron J. (1999) Law and Disagreement (Oxford: Oxford University Press).
Waldron J.. (2004) “Can There Be a Democratic Jurisprudence?” Paper delivered to the Analytic Legal Philosophy Conference, New York, April 2004, 1– 45.
Wittgenstein L. (1953) Philosophical Investigations. Trans. G.E.M. Anscombe. (Oxford: Blackwell).