Statutory default rules : how to interpret unclear legislation / Einer Elhauge.

Cambridge, MA : Harvard University Press, 2008.

62708

Law -- United States -- Interpretation and construction.

Statutes -- United States.

1. Introduction and overview --2. Why courts should maximise enactable prefrences when statutes are unclear --3. The general theory for current preferences default rules --4. Inferring current preferences from recent legislative action --5. Inferring current preferences from agency action --6. From legislative intent to probabilistic estimates of enactable preferences --7. Moderation, unforeseen circumstances, and a theory of meaning --8. Eliciting legislative preferences --9. Canons favoring the politically powerless --10. Linguistic canons of statutory construction --11. Interpretations that may create international conflict --12. Explaining seeming inconsistencies in statutory Stare Decisis --13. Tracking the prefrences of political subunits --14. Tracking High Court preferences --15. The fit with prior political science models and empirical data --16. Interest group and collective choice theory --17. Protecting reliance or avoiding change or effect --18. Rebutting operational and jurisprudential objections.

This book takes a fresh approach to the debate over the interpretation of the law by courts and legal agencies, and argues for the use of the statutory default rules by judges when legal materials fail to resolve the interpretive question.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

9780674024601

[vi], 386 p. : fig. ; 24 cm