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Judicial Interpretation In The Cost-Benefit Crucible, Jonathan R. Siegel
Judicial Interpretation In The Cost-Benefit Crucible, Jonathan R. Siegel
GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works
This article responds to Professor Adrian Vermeule's new book, Judging Under Uncertainty. Professor Vermeule argues that (1) no one can empirically determine whether judicial use of legislative history or other interpretive methods that go beyond simple enforcement of plain text has any positive net benefits, but (2) we do know that such interpretive methods impose costs, and therefore (3) courts should discard such interpretive methods. This article suggests that (1) it is far from clear how costly these interpretive methods are, (2) it is also not clear that discarding them would result in any cost savings, both because of costs …