Announcement Calenda 1155760
The aim of this colloquium is to question the relevance of the expression "Letter and Spirit" in legal interpretive methods. It is open to any doctoral student or young doctor, jurist or not; the colloquium being interdisciplinary. The expression "letter and spirit" conjures up a singular paradox. It is a commonplace in legal cultures, yet a blind spot in legal theory. Year after year, numerous authors, legal studies, legal arguments and demonstrations have used this topos to structure their analyses. Excellent treatises and manuals, both past and present, use the opposition between "the letter and the spirit in law" as the basis for their demonstrations. Is it so certain that the heritage thus summoned by the juxtaposition of these terms does not require an epistemological investigation as thorough as the juxtaposition of meanings and usages that form its sedimentation? Is it so certain, in the light of advances in legal epistemology and contemporary legal science, that distinctions and oppositions between what would be the "letter" on the one hand, and the "spirit" on the other, are relevant to legal thought? The scientific meeting of October 4, 2024 is based on multiple reasons justifying the study of the relevance of the "letter and spirit" dyad in law.
