Interpretation Theory and Methods

LAW7028
Section 1, Spring 25

Schedule Information

Enrollment: 20/44
Credits: 3
Days Time Room Start Date End Date

Tue

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Wed

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Fri

 		0850-0950 WB105 01/21/2025 04/25/2025

Course Description

The interpretation of legal texts is an important component of a wide variety of legal subjects. In constitutional law, courts and scholars debate originalism and living constitutionalism. In the statutory realm, there is a related debate about textualism, purposivism, intentionalism, and pragmatism. Similar issues arise in the interpretation of rules and regulations as well as private law text, including contracts, trusts, and wills. With the rise of textualism and originalism, judges, lawyers, and scholars are increasingly concerned with the role of interpretation in determining the meaning of legal texts. "Interpretation Theory and Methods" will explore legal theories of interpretation and construction, linguistics, and the philosophy of language. Topics will include: (1) theories of constitutional interpretation, (2) theories of statutory construction, (3) approaches to contract interpretation, (4) the nature of meaning, including semantics and pragmatics, and (5) tools for the investigation of the meaning of legal texts, including corpus linguistics and artificial intelligence.

Course Requirements

Exam Information

Final Type (if any): Flex with Paper Option

Description: Flex examination at end of the semester. The exam will give students a choice between answering questions within a three hour time period or uploading a compilation of the short papers described in the Written Work section of the course description. Students seeking to satisfy the upper-level writing requirement may submit their final paper in lieu of the exam. Students seeking to satisfy the upper-level writing requirement must submit a Upper-Level Writing Requirement "Special Request" Form to the Student Records Office by February 25. The form is available via LawWeb. Retroactive exceptions will not be granted.

Written Work Product

Students may choose to write five short papers of no more than 3,000 words each, due via Canvas at specified dates during the semester. Students choosing this option will then submit all five papers (compiled as a single document) as their final exam answer via Expo. In addition, all students will participate in a series of in-class exercises (for example, simulated oral arguments) that will be graded on a complete/incomplete basis.

Other Work

Students will participate in oral in-class exercises (such as simulated appellate arguments) graded on a completed/not-completed basis.

Other Course Details

Prerequisites: None Concurrencies: None

Exclusive With: None

Laptops Allowed: Yes

First Day Attendance Required: No

Course Resources: To be announced.

Graduation Requirements

Satisfies Understanding Bias/Racism/Cross-Cultural Competency requirement: No

Satisfies Writing Requirement: No

Credits For Prof. Skills Requirement: No

Satisfies Professional Ethics: No

Additional Course Information

Schedule No.: 125218812

Modified Type: Lecture

Cross Listed: No

Waitlist Count: 0

Concentrations: Law, Philosophy, and Humanities

Evaluation Portal Via LawWeb Opens: Tuesday, April 15, 12:01 AM

Evaluation Portal Via LawWeb Closes: Sunday, April 27, 11:59 PM

Information reflected on this page was last refreshed at: Thursday, May 15, 2025 - 7:05 AM *

*During open enrollment periods, live enrollment data may be found in SIS.