Legal Interpretation: The Window of the Text as Transparent, Opaque, or Translucent

Authors

George H. Taylor

Abstract

It is a common metaphor that the text is a window onto the world that it depicts. I want to explore this metaphor and the insights it may offer us for better understanding legal interpretation. As in the opening epigraph from James Boyd White, I shall develop the metaphor of the text as window in three ways: the text may be transparent, opaque, or translucent. My goal will be to argue that the best way to understand legal interpretation is to conceive of the legal text as translucent, but along the way I will compare the merits also of considering the legal text as either transparent or opaque.

Publication Citation

10 Nev. L.J. 700 (2010).

Recommended Citation

Taylor, George H. (2010) "Legal Interpretation: The Window of the Text as Transparent, Opaque, or Translucent," Nevada Law Journal: Vol. 10: Iss. 3, Article 8.
Available at: https://scholars.law.unlv.edu/nlj/vol10/iss3/8