Law Commons^™

Words, Meanings, And Plain Language Interpretation, John Zingarelli

John Zingarelli

Courts routinely decide cases in accordance with the Plain Language Rule, which requires a literal interpretation of statutes wherever such statements are clear and do not lead to a result manifestly at odds with the intent of the legislation. The rule directs that once a plain meaning has been obtained further interpretation should cease, and that a court should consider no non-statutory material that would serve to destabilize or change the plain meaning. The rule, however, ignores an insight that has become fundamental to lexicography. More than 250 years ago Samuel Johnson demonstrated in his Dictionary of the English Language …