The Language of Statutes

The Language of Statutes PDF Author: Lawrence Solan
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 0226767965
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 300

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Book Description
We are capable of writing crisp yet flexible laws, but Solan explains that difficult cases result when the ways in which our cognitive and linguistic faculties are structured fail to produce a single, clear interpretation. Though we are predisposed to absorb new situations into categories we have previously formed, our conceptualization is not always as crisp as the legislative and judicial realms demand. In such cases, Solan contends that other values, most importantly legislative intent, must come into play. The Language of Statutes provides an excellent introduction to statutory interpretation, rejecting the extreme arguments that judges have either too much or too little leeway, and explaining how and why a certain number of interpretive problems are simply inevitable. --Book Jacket.

The Language of Statutes

The Language of Statutes PDF Author: Lawrence Solan
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 0226767965
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 300

Get Book Here

Book Description
We are capable of writing crisp yet flexible laws, but Solan explains that difficult cases result when the ways in which our cognitive and linguistic faculties are structured fail to produce a single, clear interpretation. Though we are predisposed to absorb new situations into categories we have previously formed, our conceptualization is not always as crisp as the legislative and judicial realms demand. In such cases, Solan contends that other values, most importantly legislative intent, must come into play. The Language of Statutes provides an excellent introduction to statutory interpretation, rejecting the extreme arguments that judges have either too much or too little leeway, and explaining how and why a certain number of interpretive problems are simply inevitable. --Book Jacket.

Statutes and statutory construction

Statutes and statutory construction PDF Author: J.G. Sutherland
Publisher: Рипол Классик
ISBN: 5876844616
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 871

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Book Description
Including a discussion of legislative powers, constitutional regulations relative to the forms of legislation and to legislative procedure.

Judging Statutes

Judging Statutes PDF Author: Robert A. Katzmann
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199362149
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 184

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Book Description
In an ideal world, the laws of Congress--known as federal statutes--would always be clearly worded and easily understood by the judges tasked with interpreting them. But many laws feature ambiguous or even contradictory wording. How, then, should judges divine their meaning? Should they stick only to the text? To what degree, if any, should they consult aids beyond the statutes themselves? Are the purposes of lawmakers in writing law relevant? Some judges, such as Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, believe courts should look to the language of the statute and virtually nothing else. Chief Judge Robert A. Katzmann of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit respectfully disagrees. In Judging Statutes, Katzmann, who is a trained political scientist as well as a judge, argues that our constitutional system charges Congress with enacting laws; therefore, how Congress makes its purposes known through both the laws themselves and reliable accompanying materials should be respected. He looks at how the American government works, including how laws come to be and how various agencies construe legislation. He then explains the judicial process of interpreting and applying these laws through the demonstration of two interpretative approaches, purposivism (focusing on the purpose of a law) and textualism (focusing solely on the text of the written law). Katzmann draws from his experience to show how this process plays out in the real world, and concludes with some suggestions to promote understanding between the courts and Congress. When courts interpret the laws of Congress, they should be mindful of how Congress actually functions, how lawmakers signal the meaning of statutes, and what those legislators expect of courts construing their laws. The legislative record behind a law is in truth part of its foundation, and therefore merits consideration.

Statutory and Common Law Interpretation

Statutory and Common Law Interpretation PDF Author: Kent Greenawalt
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199756147
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 402

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Book Description
Kent Greenwalt's second volume on aspects of legal interpretation analyzes statutory and common law interpretation, suggesting that multiple factors are important for each, and that the relation between them influences both. The book argues against any simple "textualism," claiming that even reader understanding of statutes depends partly on perceived intent. In respect to common law interpretation, use of reasoning by analogy is defended and any simple dichotomy of "holding" and "dictum" is resisted.

The Interpretation and Application of Statutes

The Interpretation and Application of Statutes PDF Author: Frederick Reed Dickerson
Publisher: Aspen Publishers
ISBN:
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 346

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Book Description
This work discusses the constitutional foundations that govern the relations between the legislature and the courts and the issues of separation of powers with respect to statutes. Concepts of legislative meaning, intent, purpose, and context are described in detail.

Statutes in Court

Statutes in Court PDF Author: William D. Popkin
Publisher: Duke University Press
ISBN: 9780822323280
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 368

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Book Description
A history of the discretion accorded U.S. judges in interpreting legislation (from the Revolution to the present), culminating in the author's own theory of the proper scope of judicial discretion.

Reading Law

Reading Law PDF Author: Antonin Scalia
Publisher: West Publishing Company
ISBN: 9780314275554
Category : Judicial process
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
In this groundbreaking book, Scalia and Garner systematically explain all the most important principles of constitutional, statutory, and contractual interpretation in an engaging and informative style with hundreds of illustrations from actual cases. Is a burrito a sandwich? Is a corporation entitled to personal privacy? If you trade a gun for drugs, are you using a gun in a drug transaction? The authors grapple with these and dozens of equally curious questions while explaining the most principled, lucid, and reliable techniques for deriving meaning from authoritative texts. Meanwhile, the book takes up some of the most controversial issues in modern jurisprudence. What, exactly, is textualism? Why is strict construction a bad thing? What is the true doctrine of originalism? And which is more important: the spirit of the law, or the letter? The authors write with a well-argued point of view that is definitive yet nuanced, straightforward yet sophisticated.

The Language of Judges

The Language of Judges PDF Author: Lawrence M. Solan
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 0226767892
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 231

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Book Description
Since many legal disputes are battles over the meaning of a statute, contract, testimony, or the Constitution, judges must interpret language in order to decide why one proposed meaning overrides another. And in making their decisions about meaning appear authoritative and fair, judges often write about the nature of linguistic interpretation. In the first book to examine the linguistic analysis of law, Lawrence M. Solan shows that judges sometimes inaccurately portray the way we use language, creating inconsistencies in their decisions and threatening the fairness of the judicial system. Solan uses a wealth of examples to illustrate the way linguistics enters the process of judicial decision making: a death penalty case that the Supreme Court decided by analyzing the use of adjectives in a jury instruction; criminal cases whose outcomes depend on the Supreme Court's analysis of the relationship between adverbs and prepositional phrases; and cases focused on the meaning of certain words in the Constitution. Solan finds that judges often describe our use of language poorly because there is no clear relationship between the principles of linguistics and the jurisprudential goals that the judge wishes to promote. A major contribution to the growing interdisciplinary scholarship on law and its social and cultural context, Solan's lucid, engaging book is equally accessible to linguists, lawyers, philosophers, anthropologists, literary theorists, and political scientists.

On the Interpretation of Statutes

On the Interpretation of Statutes PDF Author: Sir Peter Benson Maxwell
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 500

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Book Description


Rhetorical Strategies in Legal Language

Rhetorical Strategies in Legal Language PDF Author: Anna Trosborg
Publisher: Gunter Narr Verlag
ISBN: 9783823350897
Category : Discourse analysis
Languages : en
Pages : 182

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Book Description