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Full-Text Articles in Jurisprudence
Ugly American Hermeneutics, Francis J. Mootz Iii
Ugly American Hermeneutics, Francis J. Mootz Iii
Scholarly Works
This article will appear in a Symposium on comparative legal hermeneutics that includes four articles by American scholars and four articles by Brazilian scholars. I argue that the "ugly American" hermeneutics exemplified in Justice Scalia's opinion in District of Columbia v. Heller is unfortunate, even if we supplement Justice Scalia's hermeneutical fantasy with the much more careful and balanced philosophical work by Larry Solum, Keith Whittington and other scholars. Nevertheless, the pragmatic work of interpretation by lawyers and judges in the day-to-day world of legal practice shows a plain-faced integrity of which we Americans can be proud.
Legal Interpretation: The Window Of The Text As Transparent, Opaque, Or Translucent, George H. Taylor
Legal Interpretation: The Window Of The Text As Transparent, Opaque, Or Translucent, George H. Taylor
Articles
It is a common metaphor that the text is a window onto the world that it depicts. In legal interpretation, the metaphor has been developed in two ways – the legal text as transparent or opaque – and the Article proposes a third – the legal text as translucent. The claim that the legal text is transparent has been associated with more liberal methodological approaches. According to this view (often articulated by critics), the legal text does not markedly delimit meaning. Delimitation comes from the interpreters. By contrast, stress on the opacity of the legal text comes from those who …