Legal interpretation

Legal interpretation determines what legal texts and rules mean and how they apply to particular facts. It draws on language, context, legal sources, and interpretive methods.

Textualism: A method that gives primary weight to the ordinary meaning of statutory language. It treats enacted words, rather than inferred legislative intentions, as the main constraint on meaning.
Statutory interpretation: The process of determining the meaning and application of legislation. It is the most common setting for disputes over how legal wording applies.
Literal rule: An approach that applies statutory words in their ordinary sense, even when the result seems unreasonable. Its strict focus on ordinary wording contrasts with methods that weigh purpose or context.
Antonin Scalia: A United States Supreme Court justice known for advancing textualism and originalism. His opinions and writing helped make textualist interpretation prominent in American law.
Judicial review: The power of courts to assess whether government action complies with higher law. Constitutional interpretation helps determine when courts invalidate government acts.
Purposivism: A method that interprets legal texts to advance the purposes they were designed to serve. It uses a law’s objectives to resolve ambiguity or avoid readings that frustrate its aims.
Constitutional interpretation: The process of determining the meaning and application of constitutional provisions. It applies interpretive methods to foundational rules that constrain government.
Mischief rule: A common-law approach that reads legislation in light of the defect it was enacted to remedy. It foregrounds the problem addressed rather than treating text as the sole guide.
Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.: An American jurist and legal scholar associated with pragmatism and legal realism. His work questioned purely logical accounts of how judges interpret and apply law.
Separation of powers: The division of governmental authority among branches with distinct functions and constraints. Interpretive disputes often concern whether courts, legislatures, or agencies control legal meaning.

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