Abstract
There are different kinds of legal interpretations, including statutory interpretation, constitutional interpretation, contractual interpretation and treaty interpretation. This chapter compares the similar and different aspects of various legal interpretations. The similar aspect is that these interpretations basically start from the textual languages. But their respective extents of reliance on the textual wording and other means of interpretation (such as the drafters’ intent, the historical backgrounds, the preparatory works and the evolutive element) are different.
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Notes
- 1.
Article X:1 of the GATT 1994 in turn provides in part: “Laws, regulations, judicial decisions and administrative rulings of general application, made effective by any contracting party, pertaining to the classification or the valuation of products for customs purposes, or to rates of duty, taxes or other charges, or to requirements, restrictions or prohibitions on imports or exports or on the transfer of payments therefore, or affecting their sale, distribution, transportation, insurance, warehousing inspection, exhibition, processing, mixing or other use, shall be published promptly in such a manner as to enable governments and traders to become acquainted with them…”. Such laws, regulations, judicial decisions and administrative rulings of general application are collectively called in this Chapter as “domestic trade rules”.
- 2.
Sullivan R, The Plain Meaning Rule and Other Ways to Cheat at Statutory Interpretation. http://aix1.uottawa.ca/~resulliv/legdr/pmr.html. Accessed 30 July 2017.
- 3.
Id.
- 4.
Clark and Connolly (2006).
- 5.
Farber (1996), p. 514.
- 6.
Id. at p. 516.
- 7.
See Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, Art. 32, opened for signature 23 May 1969, 1155 U.N.T.S. 331.
- 8.
Linder D, Exploring Constitutional Conflicts—Theories of Constitutional Interpretation. http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/conlaw/interp.html. Accessed 30 July 2017.
- 9.
Different perspectives on living constitution is explained in Rehnquist (2006), pp. 402–403.
- 10.
Martorana (2014).
References
Clark K, Connolly M (2006) A guide to reading, interpreting and applying statutes. https://www.law.georgetown.edu/academics/academic-programs/legal-writing-scholarship/writing-center/upload/statutoryinterpretation.pdf. Accessed 30 July 2017
Farber DA (1996) The hermeneutic tourist: statutory interpretation in comparative perspective. Cornell Law Rev 81:513–529
Linder D Exploring constitutional conflicts—theories of constitutional interpretation. http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/conlaw/interp.html. Accessed 30 July 2017
Martorana VR (2014) A guide to contract interpretation. http://www.reedsmith.com/files/uploads/miscellany/A_Guide_to_Contract_Interpretation__July_2014_pdf. Accessed 30 July 2017
Rehnquist WH (2006) The notion of a living constitution. Harv J Law Public Policy 29(2):401–415
Sullivan R The plain meaning rule and other ways to cheat at statutory interpretation. http://aix1.uottawa.ca/~resulliv/legdr/pmr.html. Accessed 30 July 2017
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Lo, Cf. (2017). Treaty Interpretation as Opposed to Statutory, Constitutional and Contractual Interpretations. In: Treaty Interpretation Under the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-6866-9_2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-6866-9_2
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