Linguistic Meaning and the Law

3 credits · Undergraduate

We will investigate how inherent properties of language, such as ambiguity, vagueness and context-dependence, play into the meaning of a legal text, and how the meaning of a law can remain invariant while its range of application can change with the facts and with our discovery of what the facts are. Our focus will be on the perspective linguistic analysis brings to legal theory, addressing current controversies surrounding different conceptions of 'textualism' and drawing on well-known examples of legal reasoning about language in cases of identity fraud, obstruction of justice and genocide.