Reading Law
The Interpretation of Legal Texts
by Antonin Scalia, Bryan A. Garner
5/5
Thomson West 567 pages June 19, 2012
Justice Scalia and Bryan Garner present and explain 57 canons of legal interpretation — the rules judges use (or should use) to read statutes, contracts, and constitutions. The definitive textualist manifesto and reference.
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Jim's Review
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This is Scalia's textualist creed in book form, co-written with Garner with the rigor of a legal dictionary. Each canon — ejusdem generis, expressio unius, the rule of lenity, the absurdity doctrine — gets a chapter explaining what it means, where it comes from, and when it applies. You don't have to be a textualist to use this book; you have to deal with textualists, and this is what they're working from. Five worms for utility. The single best reference on interpretive canons in print. Pair with Eskridge's Dynamic Statutory Interpretation if you want the other side of the debate.
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