ABOUT THE BOOK

Language shapes and reflects how we think about the world. It engages and intrigues us. Our everyday use of language is quite effortless-we are all experts on our native tongues. Despite this, issues of language and meaning have long flummoxed the judges on whom we depend for the interpretation of our most fundamental legal texts. Should a judge feel confident in defining common words in the text determined? Should the communicative meaning of text be decisive, or at least influential?