“Law students quickly learn that many legal texts are vague or open-textured. Words like ‘reasonable’ and phrases like ‘freedom of speech’ may not provide bright-line rules for their application. This lack of precision creates a zone of underdeterminacy, where something other than the meaning of the text is required in order to formulate implementation rules (the legal doctrines that courts use to apply the text to particular cases). If we distinguish between ‘interpretation’ (which discovers meaning) and ‘construction’ (which determines legal effect, we can call these zones of underdeterminacy ‘construction zones’ …” (more)
[Lawrence Solum, Legal Theory Blog, 20 December]
First posted 2020-12-21 07:55:22
Leave a Reply