American Statutory Interpretation

Catalog description

This course will examine the practice of statutory interpretation in the U.S. legal system. The course will begin with the study of the basic approaches to statutory interpretation (intentionalism, purposivism, textualism, and pragmatism). Second, a distinctive feature of statutory interpretation by some state courts (methodological stare decisis) will be considered. Finally, a case study of a momentous question of statutory interpretation currently before the U.S. Supreme Court (in King v. Burwell, No. 14-114) will be conducted.