Legal texts, whether they be constitutions, rules extracted from case opinions, statutes, regulations, treaties, restatements, or even contract clauses, all contain an element of future planning. The texts are meant to determine legal outcomes for specified future contingencies. Drafters of the texts thus face a typical ex ante planning problem: what to provide for futures which are difficult if not impossible to anticipate and predict. Interpreters and appliers of the texts face the complementary task of determining ex post what influence the text should have in determining the legal outcome given that the actual occurrences were not precisely described in the textual expression of the rule. In response to these challenges, drafters of texts may adopt context-sensitive or context-insensitive strategies – and in doing so they raise risks, respectively, of moral hazard and of loss of flexibility. In turn, interpreters of texts may apply language in invariant ways or seek to adapt their interpretations to context -- choices that also carry risks of their own. Our panel features an interdisciplinary collection of distinguished scholars who will explore the complexities of interpretation and uncertainty in a variety of contexts.
Business Meeting of Section on Law and Economics at Program Conclusion.
Business Meeting of Section on Law and Interpretation at Program Conclusion.