legal hermeneutics.

L-419 Advanced Legal Theory: Legal Hermeneutics

COURSE SYLLABUS

I. Course Description

This is a course under Advancd Legal Theory. It studies the philosophic foundations of legal hermeneutics, its phenomenological, epistemological and historical assumptions and context. The course will study the different theoretical currents that inform the practice of legal interpretation such as the XIX century historical school, the debate between E. Betti and H.G. Gadamer, the Law and Literaure movement, originalism, deconstruction, among others. The ocurse will also cover the principles and rules governing Constitutional, Statutory and Contractual intrerpretation. 2 crédits

II. General Objetcives

The course aims to develop in the student the capacity and ability to analyze legal problem concerning their interpretation. In order to accomplish this aim the students must study the philosophical foundations of legal hermeneutics, particularly their diverse currents of thought. As a result of this process the student should be able to identify and utilize different means of interpretation in the various areas of the law. Also, the course aims to develop an interest in the problems of jurisprudence in general.

The course will also provide the student with the intellectual tools and knowledge to effectively practice the legal profession and to contribute to it and society.

COURSE OUTLINE AND READINGS

I. Introduction

A. Description and explanation of the problems of interpretation in general and legal interpretation in particular.

B. The phenomonelogical, epistemological and historical presuppositions for legal hermeneutics

Readings:

Jorge Luis Borges, La Biblioteca de Babel (en Ficciones , 1944) ; English version The Library of Babel

Images :

René Magritte, Ceci n’est pas une pipe

M.C. Escher, Belvedere, Waterfall

II. Historical antecedents of legal hermeneutics

A. The Problem of History and its periodization.

B. Greek and Roman Thought.

C. The Judeo-Christian tradition. Hermeneutics in the religious tradition.

D. Scholasticism: Thomism and Nominalism

E. Sapere aude. Modernity and the investiture of rationalism.

F XIX century and the historical schools. Herder, Hegel, Savigny, Schilimacher,

Dilthey

Readings :

David Lowenthal, The Past is a Foreign Country , Chap. I, Reliving the past : Dreams and Nightmares , págs. 3-34 (1985).

Socrates (Plato), The Apology

Brian Bix, Natural Law Theory , (in A Companion to Philosophy of Law and Legal Theory , pp.223-240)

Alexander Somek, German Legal Philosophy and Theory in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries (in A Companion to Philosophy of Law and Legal Theory , pp. 343-354).

III. Contemporaneous Currents in Legal Hermeneutics

A. The legal hermeneutics of E. Betti. The canons of interpretation.

1. Objective Criteria

a. The immanence of the text

b. The context of the text

2. Subjective Criteria

a. The actualizarion of the interpreter

b. The correspondence of the interpreter

Readings:

George Wright, On A General Theory of Interpretation : The Betti-Gadamer Dispute in Legal Hermeneutics , 32 The American Journal of Jurisprudence 191, 208 (1987).

Suggested Readings:

E.Betti, Las categorías civilísticas de la interpretación (en Interpretación de la ley y de los actos jurídicos , págs. 23-68, 1971).

B. The Philosophic Hermeneutics of H.G. Gadamer

1. The phenomenon of language

2. The hermeneutical circle and the fusion of horizons

3. Prejudices

4. Tradition and sensus communis

Readings:

H.G. Gadamer, The Universality of the Hermeneutical Problem (in Philosophical Hermeneutics , pp. 3-17 1976)

H.G. Gadamer, Man and Language (in Philosophical Hermeneutics , pp.59-68 1976)

Suggested Readings:

A.Córdova, Reflexiones sobre la naturaleza de la interpretación jurídica ; Entre Betti y Gadamer. Revista Crítica de Derecho Inmobiliario; Año LXXI, Noviembre-Diciembre 1995, Núm. 631, págs. 2133-2152.

C. Law and Literature Law as Narrative

1. Law as Literature: the Uses of Literary Tropes in Law.

2. The Judicial Opinion as a Story.

Readings:

R. Posner, The Reflection of Law in Literature , (en Law and Literaure , págs. 11-48, (1988).

R. Posner, Make it Simple, Make it New : Opinion Writing and Apellate Advocacy , Reflections on Judging , Chapter 8, pp. 3236-286, (2014)

Palsgraf v. Long Island R.R. Co. , Ct. of App. of N.Y., 248 N.Y. 339, 162 N.E. 99 (N.Y. 1928).

Suggested Readings:

A. Córdova, Ideaciones: hacia una deconstrucción del artículo 14 del Código Civil , Revista Jurídica de la U.P.R. Vol. 60, Núm. 4 (1991).

G. Binder, R. Weisberg, Hermeneutic Criticism of Law (en Literary Criticism of Law , Chap. One, págs. 112-200); (2000).

D. The Genealogy of Knowledge, Posmodernism, Deconstruction.

1. The Genealogy of Knowledge. Foucault

2. The postmodern condition and the collapse of metanarratives. Lyotard

3. Logocentrism and the tyranny of the text. Deconstruction as Justice. Derrida

Readings:

M. Foucaul, The Art of Telling the Truth , in Politics, Philosophy, Culture , pp., 86-95 (1988).

J. Derrida, Force of Law : The Mystical Foundation of Authority (in Deconstruction and the Possibility of Justice , págs. 3-67, 1992)

E.Said ; Knowledge and Interpretation (en Covering Islam , págs. 162-173. 1997).

Suggested Readings:

H.G. Gadamer, Destrucción y deconstrucción (en Verdad y método II , 1994)

A.Córdova, Metástasis de la Razón y el Derecho (en Revista de la Academia Puertorriqueña de Jurisprudencia y Legislación , Vol. V, pág. 213 (1998).

E. Scalia and Textualism

1. The doctrine of original intent vs. The living Constitution

2. The uses and abuses of History in interpretation

Readings:

Scalia, A Matter of Iterpretation, Federal Courts and the Law (1997).

Obergefell, et al v. Hodges , 576 U.S. ___(2015). Same–Sex Marriage

Boumediene v Bush , 553 U.S. 723 (2008). Habeas Corpus.

Video Lectures:

Antonin Scalia and Stephen Breyer debate the Constitution Federalist Society sponsored debate (2012), Véase en You Tube http://youtu.be/_4n8gOUzZ81

F. R. Dworkin and liberalism

1. The promise of the Liberal State

Video Lectures:

R. Dworkin, Is There Truth in Interpretation? Law, Literature and History . 2009 Kellog Biennal Lecture. Library of Congress. See You Tube, http://youtu.be/742JyiLhuk

G. Critical Legal Studies Movement

1. Law as the continuation of politics by other means

2. The heritage of Marxism

Readings:

G. Binder, Critical Legal Studies ( en A Companion to Philosophy of Law and Legal Theory , pág. 280-290)

R.Mangabeira Unger, Law in Modern Society , Chap. 4, The Predicament of Social Theory Revisted ,págs. 243-268)

IV. Principles and Rules of Interpretation

A. Rules of Statutory Interpretation

Readings:

Puerto Rico Civil Code, artícles 13-19, 31 L.P.R.A. §13-§19.

B. Principles of Judicial Interpretation

Suggested Reading:

R.E. Bernier y J.A. Cuevas Segarra,  Aprobación e Interpretación de las Leyes en Puerto Rico , San Juan, Pubs. J.T.S., 1987

C. Constitutional Interpretation: Hermeneutics as Politics

Readings:

Masterpiece Cakeshop, Ltd. v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission , 584 U.S. (2018)

Commonwealth of Puerto Rico v. Sanchez Valle , 579 U.S. ____ (2016).

Suggested Reading:

Pueblo v. Sánchez Valle , 2015 T.S.P.R. 25.

D. Statutory interpretation: meaning vs. intent

Readings:

Smith v. U.S . 508 U.S. 223 (1993).

E. Interpretation in Private Law

Readings:

Puerto Rico Civil Code, Articles 1233-1241, 31 L.P.R.A. §3471-§3479.

V. Conclusion

Suggested Reading:

A.Córdova, El libro de los veinticuatro juristas , 50 Rev. Jurídica U. Inter. P.R. ___ (2015)

Suggested Bibliography

H.G. Gadamer, Truth and Method , Crossroad Publishing Company (1975)

H.G. Gadamer, Philosophical Hermeneutics; Univ. of California Press (1976).

H.G.Gadamer, Verdad y Método I , Ediciones Sígueme Salamanca, Sexta Edición (1996)

H.G.Gadamer, Verdad y Método II , Ediciones Sígueme Salamanca, Segunda Edición (1994).

E.. Betti ; Interpretación de la ley y de los actos jurídicos  ; Editorial Revista de Derecho Privado Madrid (1975).

Binder Guyora ; Weisberg, Robert ; Literary Criticism of Law , Harvard Univ. Press, Cambridge, Mass (2000).

Boyd White, James ; The Edge of Meaning , Univ. Of Chicago Press, Chicago (2001).

Cornell, Drucilla, et al., Editors ; Deconstruction and the Possibility of Justice , Routledge, New York (1992).

Dworkin, Ronald ; Freedom‘s Law, The Moral Reading of the American Constitution , Harvard Univ. Press, Cambridge, Mass (1996).

Fish, Stanley ; The Trouble with Principle , Harvard Univ. Press, Cambridge, Mass (1999).

Greenwalt, Kent ; Law and Objectivity , Oxford Univ. Press, Oxford (1992).

Kennedy, Duncan ; A Critique of Adjudication , Harvard Univ. Press, Cambridge, Mass (1997).

Patterson, Dennis ; Law and Truth , Oxford Univ. Press, Oxford (1996).

Posner, Richard A. ; Law and Literature , Harvard Univ. Press (1998).

Scalia, Antonin; A Matter of Interpretation , Harvard Univ. Press, Cambridge, Mass (1997).

Warnkem, Georgia; Justice and Interpretation, MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts (1993)

Rodolfo L. Vigo, Interpretación jurídica , Rubizal-Culzoni Editores. Buenos Aires (1999).Stanley

Rosen, Hermeneutics as Politics , Oxford Univ. Press, Oxford (1987).

Said, E., Orientalism . Random House (1978),