Kirby Seminar
In the next installment of the Kirby Seminar Series, coordinated by the UNE School of Law Research Committee, Dr Jonathan Crowe, Senior Lecturer at the University of Queensland, will speak on the topic of “The Priority Of Contextual Meaning: A Theory of Judicial Interpretation”. The seminar will take place at noon on 19 May 2009 in the Lewis Seminar Room (W38, Law School building).
In his paper, Dr Crowe argues that, in interpreting legal texts, judges should seek to give effect to their contextual meaning: the meaning they hold when considered in the full light of their broader social and moral context. He will argue first that, as a descriptive matter, contextual meaning is necessarily prior to any more restricted form of textual interpretation; that is, the contextual meaning of a legal text is its ordinary meaning. He will then advance two arguments for the proposition that, other things being equal, judicial interpretation of legal texts ought to follow their ordinary (or contextual) meaning. The final parts of his paper explore the nature and limitations of the contextualist model of judicial practice. The possibility of conflicts between contextual factors at different levels of abstraction makes it necessary to distinguish between narrow and wide versions of the contextualist methodology. He argues that wide contextualism offers the best overall account of judicial practice.