Poscher on the Hermeneutics of Law @CambridgeUP

Ralf Poscher, Albert-Ludwigs-University Freiburg, is publishing The Hermeneutics of Law: An Analytical Model for a Complex General Account in The Cambridge Companion to Hermeutics (Michael Forster and Kristin Gjesdal, eds., Cambridge University Press, 2017). Here is the abstract.

In contrast to monistic conceptions of hermeneutics as interpretation, legal hermeneutics has always been acutely aware of the complexity of our hermeneutic practices. The legal tradition thus speaks in favor a complex conception of hermeneutics that identifies the different activities involved. The essay tries to show that such diverse activities as interpretation, rule-following, construction, association, the exercise of discretion, and judgments on significance can all be involved in the application of the law. All of these distinct practices involve distinct theoretical issues, most of which can be linked to particular debates in analytic philosophy. To prove the point that this complex conception of hermeneutics is not specific to the law, but applies to hermeneutics in general, some parallels in the field of the hermeneutics of art are drawn. In theoretically following up on the distinctions inherent in legal doctrine and methods, hermeneutics in general can live up to Gadamer’s observation that there is something to be learned from looking at the law.

Download the essay from SSRN at the link.

Kemmerer on Sources in the Meta-Theory of International Law: Hermeneutical Conversations @kemmereralex

Alexandra Kemmerer, Max Planck Society for the Advancement of the Sciences, Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law, is publishing Sources in the Meta-Theory of International Law: Hermeneutical Conversations in The Oxford Handbook on the Sources of International Law (Samantha Besson and Jean D'Aspremont, eds., Oxford University Press, 2017). Here is the abstract.

A meta-theoretical approach to sources opens reflexive spaces, situates theories in time and space, and allows for a contextual interpretation of sources. In this paper, drawing on the hermeneutic philosophy of Hans-Georg Gadamer and the writings of his most perceptive readers in international law, I develop a concept of reflexive situatedness prompting a constructive contextualization of sources and their interpreters in our ‘normative pluriverse’ (D’Aspremont). Following the traces of international law’s current ‘turn to interpretation’ and a reading of international law as a ‘hermeneutical enterprise’, my assessment of the limits and potentials of Gadamerian philosophical hermeneutics prepares the ground for an analysis of the writings of international lawyers who have developed theories of international legal interpretation inspired by his work — and, in particular, for a closer look at the writings of Outi Korhonen, linking her concept of situationality to an emphasis on context(s) that engages with the rhetorical dimension of Gadamer’s work. Gadamer’s conversational hermeneutics opens new perspectives for a contextual theory and praxis of international legal interpretation that brings together various disciplinary perspectives and cultural experiences, and thereby allows for a more nuanced and dynamic understanding of sources and their interpreters within their respective interpretative communities.

Download the essay from SSRN at the link.