Statutory interpretation : pragmatics and argumentation / Douglas Walton, University of Windsor, Fabrizio Macagno, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Giovanni Sartor, University of Bologna.
Interpretation and statutory interpretation -- Statutory interpretation as problem solving -- Interpretation and pragmatics : legal ambiguity -- Pragmatic maxims and presumptions in legal interpretation -- Arguments of statutory interpretation and argumentation schemes -- Classification and formalization of interpretative schemes.
Summary:
"The English word "interpretation" comes from Latin interpretatio, from interpres, originally meaning an intermediary, broker, or agent, and then also an explainer or translator (De Vaan 2008, 307). In its turn interpres seems to have resulted from the fusion of inter (between) and praes, a word that possibly shares the same root with the Latin pretium (price), thus being linked to the idea of an economic exchange (lending, buying, or selling). The semantic area of "interpretation" is also covered by terms of Greek origin, such as "exegesis" and "hermeneutics," often used in religious contexts. In Latin, intepretatio was used normally as a synonym for translation (McElduff 2009), considered both as transposing a text into a different language and as explaining the meaning of a text to one who does not understand it (Cicero De Legibus, 1.14.9). However, interpretatio was also used in a broader sense, for referring to the activity of interpreting "laws, dreams and omens as well as languages, though the notion of transferring information of one sort or another from person to person or from god to person is always key to its usage" (McElduff 2009, 136). In the medieval dialectical tradition, and in particular in Abelard, interpretatio was a technical term. It was used for the activity of explaining the meaning of a word completely unknown, such as (normally) a foreign word (Abaelardus Dialectica, 583-584), in particular, by reference to word's etymology, or to the analysis of its component morphemes (Abaelardus Dialectica, 340)"-- Provided by publisher.
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