For a not inconsiderable part of our history, the Supreme Court held that the" letter"(text) of a
statute must yield to its" spirit"(purpose) when the two conflicted. 1 Traditionally, the Court's" …

In the past decade, self-described textualist judges have questioned the legitimacy of using
legislative history as an" authoritative" source of legislative intent. Textualists contend that …

FOR much of our history, the Supreme Court has unflinchingly proclaimed that legislative"
intent" is the touchstone of federal statutory interpretation.'The rationale is familiar: In a …

Most regulatory statutes instruct agencies to balance competing concerns in setting
standards. Some regulatory statutes, however, impose short deadlines and stringent …

The administrative state is suffering from a crisis of legitimacy. Many have questioned the
legality of the myriad commissions, boards, and agencies through which much of our …

In 1908 the second volume of the American Journal of International Law featured a piece by
Lassa Oppenheim entitled The Science of International Law: Its Tasks and Method …

The use of hacking tools by law enforcement to pursue criminal suspects who have
anonymized their communications on the dark web presents a looming flashpoint between …

Although The Legal Process remains unfinished to this day, it provided the agenda, much of
the analytic structure, and even the name of the" legal process school" of the 195os and the …

Although good information is critical to effective decisionmaking, public agents' private
incentives to invest in gathering information may not align with the social interest in their …

Every judicial interpretation of a statute carries with it a lesson about democratic theory,
albeit one that is often unacknowledged and sometimes unintended. As an interbranch …