ABSTRACT

This distinction between justification and discovery (or heuresis) is taken as the basis of analysis in Interpreting Statutes (MacCormick and Summers, 1991). It is an often stated and now familiar distinction. Less familiar, perhaps is the strategy of investigating interpretative reasoning as an element in justification that is as one salient element within the justificatory reasonings of lawyers and legal systems. Why and how do interpretative arguments about the meaning and point of particular statutory provious count as acceptable (partial) justifying reasons for the decisions of the judges in concrete cases? The emphasis on justification gives a particular direction to explorations of the idea of interpretation.