The Nine Lives of Legal Interpretation

Authors

  • Bruce Anderson

Keywords:

cognitional theory, functional specialization. philosophy of law

Abstract

Legal scholars talk and write about interpretation in terms of the meaningof words, and for many legal philosophers legal interpretation involvessubsuming particular situations under general rules. However, the more youexamine legal interpretation the more confusing the whole idea ofinterpretation becomes. The aim of this paper is to use Bernard Lonergan'sdiscussion of functional specialization to make sense of this disorderlystate of affairs.

Author Biography

Bruce Anderson

Dr Bruce Anderson is Chair of the Dept of Accounting and Commercial Law at Saint Mary’s University, Halifax, Nova Scotia. His published work has dealt with the process of discovery in legal decision-making, business ethics, and Lonergan’s economic theory.

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Published

2010-10-20