Justice Thomas Lee (Utah Supreme Court) and Stephen Mouritsen have posted this draft on SSRN. Here is the abstract: Judges generally begin their interpretive task by looking for the ordinary meaning of the language of the law. And they often… Continue reading

Anita Krishnakumar has posted this draft on SSRN (forthcoming, Virginia Law Review).  Here is the abstract: This Article seeks to shed light on a little-noticed trend in recent U.S. Supreme Court statutory interpretation cases: The Court’s textualist Justices—or at least… Continue reading

This paper on Leib and Brudney looks to be very good (forthcoming, Virginia Law Review): This article introduces a widespread but virtually unacknowledged practice in Congress and state legislatures. Not only do legislatures override judicial decisions as part of an… Continue reading

NYT reports.

Lumen Mulligan and Glen Staszewski have posted this draft on SSRN. Here is the abstract: We claim that the proper method of interpreting the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure — civil rules interpretive theory — should be recognized as a… Continue reading

Lawrence Solan has posted this draft on SSRN (forthcoming, North Carolina Law Review). Here is the abstract: In interpreting statutes, judges frequently refer to their obligation to take a back seat to the legislature, and to avoid substituting their own… Continue reading

Larry Solum has posted this draft on SSRN: This essay sketches an originalist methodology using ideas from legal theory and theoretical linguistics, including the distinctions between interpretation and construction and between semantics and pragmatics. The Essay aims to dispel a… Continue reading

Jim Brudney and Larry Baum have posted this draft on SSRN.  Here is the abstract: This article is the first in-depth empirical and doctrinal analysis of differences in statutory interpretation between the courts of appeals and the Supreme Court. It… Continue reading

Interesting new symposium issue in The Theory and Practice of Legislation. You can read Ittai Bar Siman Tov’s substantive introduction to the symposium at this free-access link. Looks great!