Statutory Interpretation
Pragmatics and Argumentation

Combining pragmatics, dialectics, analytics, and legal theory, this work translates interpretative canons into patterns of natural argument.

Douglas Walton (Author), Fabrizio Macagno (Author), Giovanni Sartor (Author)

9781108429344, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 21 January 2021

320 pages
23.5 x 15.7 x 2.2 cm, 0.63 kg

'The authors do not assume extensive prior knowledge of the five varied disciplines that the work integrates, defining key concepts as needed and pointing out relevant areas of controversy in the literature … This work will be of primary interest to researchers in artificial intelligence and law, statutory interpretation, argumentation theory, and pragmatics.' Emily Da Silva, Canadian Law Library Review

Statutory interpretation involves the reconstruction of the meaning of a legal statement when it cannot be considered as accepted or granted. This phenomenon needs to be considered not only from the legal and linguistic perspective, but also from the argumentative one - which focuses on the strategies for defending a controversial or doubtful viewpoint. This book draws upon linguistics, legal theory, computing, and dialectics to present an argumentation-based approach to statutory interpretation. By translating and summarizing the existing legal interpretative canons into eleven patterns of natural arguments - called argumentation schemes - the authors offer a system of argumentation strategies for developing, defending, assessing, and attacking an interpretation. Illustrated through major cases from both common and civil law, this methodology is summarized in diagrams and maps for application to computer sciences. These visuals help make the structures, strategies, and vulnerabilities of legal reasoning accessible to both legal professionals and laypeople.

1. Interpretation and statutory interpretation
2. Statutory interpretation as problem solving
3. Interpretation and pragmatics: legal ambiguity
4. Pragmatic maxims and presumptions in legal interpretation
5. Arguments of statutory interpretation and argumentation schemes
6. Classification and formalization of interpretative schemes.

Subject Areas: Jurisprudence & philosophy of law [LAB], Jurisprudence & general issues [LA]