英文作为一项多维事业的法定解释LR104n4Rakoff.pdfVIP

Copyright 2010 by Northwestern University School of Law Printed in U.S.A. Northwestern University Law Review Vol. 104, No. 4 Essay STATUTORY INTERPRETATION AS A MULTIFARIOUS ENTERPRISE Todd D. Rakoff∗ INTRODUCTION 1559 I. AN EXAMPLE 1560 A. An Interpretation Based on Formal Legal Documents 1561 B. An Interpretation Based on an Analysis of the Situation 1565 II. THE TWO METHODS COMPARED 1567 III. ARE MULTIPLE APPROACHES LEGITIMATE? 1570 IV. CHOOSING THE APPROPRIATE FRAME OF REFERENCE 1575 CONCLUSION 1585 INTRODUCTION What is the best way to interpret statutes? “The hard truth of the matter,” wrote Henry Hart and Albert Sacks better than a half-century ago, “is that American courts have no intelligible, generally accepted, and consistently applied theory of statutory interpretation.”1 In the intervening years, and especially in the last quarter- century, various writers—mostly scholars—have tried to provide the needed theory.2 Through their efforts we undoubtedly now have a more subtle understanding of the problems involved than we once did. At the same time, it continues to be remarked, and in a statistical way even demonstrated, that judges in general do not restrict themselves, sometimes even within a single opinion, to following any single theory of statutory construction.3 ∗