This article reviews the broadening scope of anthropological studies of law between 1949
and 1999, and considers how the political background of the period may be reflected in …

What is law? This question has preoccupied philosophers from Plato to Thomas Hobbes to
HLA Hart. Yet many others find it perplexing. How could we possibly know how to answer …

Software has partially or fully displaced many former human activities, such as catching
speeders or flying airplanes, and proven itself able to surpass humans in certain contests …

Suppose that a statute, enacted several decades ago, bans the introduction of any color
additive in food if that additive" causes cancer" in human beings or animals.'Suppose that …

How should judges, in America and elsewhere, interpret statutes and the Constitution?
Previous work on these fundamental questions has typically started from abstract views …

Constitutional law in the United States and around the world now operates within an
increasingly transnational legal environment of international treaties, customary …

The law reviews and judicial opinions both teem with de-bates about theories of legal
interpretation. Prominent compet-ing theories of statutory interpretation include textualism …

When court of appeals judges decide a case, they focus on legal materials to reach their
result. These materials include the case record compiled in the trial court or agency; the …

ENSURING the uniform interpretation of federal law has long been considered one of the
federal courts' primary objectives, and uniformity is regularly cited in some of the most …

Legal interpretation involves scrutinizing legal texts such as the texts of statutes,
constitutions, contracts, and wills. This chapter introduces the foundational question of what …