Statutory Interpretation Arguments

The United States is an increasingly regulated society, and the interpretation of statutory materials—including laws, administrative rules and regulations, procedural rules, and all other code and regulatory materials—has become a common requirement for American lawyers.

Statutory interpretation has a certain life of its own parallel to the typical common law, authority-and-precedent-based reasoning that makes up the greater part of the discussion in this book. The same basic structural principles apply with equal force to statutory interpretation arguments. But there also are some differences.

A statutory interpretation argument is an argument in which the meaning and interpretation of the terms of a statute (or rule or constitutional provision) are contested. In such an argument, the rule and explanation sections should demonstrate specific methods and principles of statutory construction. Of course, analysis of case law will still be important, as you find authorities that have developed or interpreted a statute’s meaning, but you will want to add some analytical tools to your repertoire.