Contract Meta-Interpretation
UC Davis Law Review, Vol. 49, p. 1097, 2016
FSU College of Law, Public Law Research Paper No. 785
FSU College of Law, Law, Business & Economics Paper No. 16-3
51 Pages Posted: 15 Jan 2016 Last revised: 3 Feb 2016
Date Written: January 13, 2016
Abstract
This Article provides a general framework for resolving the contract law’s ambivalence between textualism and contextualism, one of the most difficult questions in modern contract interpretation. Simply put, the Article’s argument is that courts need to determine the parties’ preferences as to how their contracts should be interpreted; this “meta-interpretive” inquiry can then direct the court’s interpretation or construction of the parties’ substantive rights and duties. Moreover, the Article argues that while contextualist interpretation is not, and should not be, mandatory for all interpretive questions under contract law, contextualism is necessary to resolve the initial “meta-interpretive” question: What interpretive regime do the parties prefer? Recognizing this distinction, and applying this two-step inquiry, can resolve some of the academic and practical debates between textualists and contextualists, and it can also explain some features of modern contract law.
Keywords: contract, interpretation
JEL Classification: K12
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation