Emilio Betti's Legal Hermeneutics: Between a Theory of Legal Interpretation and a Hermeneutical Theory of Law
21 Pages Posted: 29 Sep 2013
Date Written: September 22, 2012
Abstract
This paper is a reevaluation of the position of the Italian jurist Emilio Betti in the tradition of the hermeneutical philosophy of law. I argue that Betti should be considered to be a part of that tradition by analysing the elements of a hermeneutical theory of law in his theory of legal interpretation and general theory of interpretation. Furthermore, I challenge the claims by Antonin Scalia in Reading Law about the novelty and originalist provenience of the canons of interpretation/construction by elaborating Betties view on basic canons of interpretation in general.
Keywords: interpretation, hermeneutics, jurisprudence, Betti, Kaufman, Dworkin, Esser, originalism, Scalia, canons of interpretation
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