ABSTRACT
This chapter outlines the role of contextual interpretation in legal meaning. It considers alternative judicial approaches to legal interpretation. The chapter introduces the question of how closely approaches to interpreting legal texts should be expected to resemble linguistic understanding of the ways meaning is created in everyday language use. Pragmatic theories show how discourse interpretation proceeds in part through contextual inference. Legal interpretation is concerned with ascertaining intended meaning. Although all interpretation of legislative language is influenced by contextual factors, the significance of pragmatic interpretation is more evident in purposive reading of the law. In public international law, to take one area, a cluster of key words and phrases have shown themselves to be exposed to contested interpretation in forums, including international courts, tribunals and treaty negotiations. Construing' a legal text, as a result, involves pragmatic aspects in addition to the semantics of language and the specialised forms of reasoning associated with legal rules.
