Announcement Calenda 1188551
The expression "the Letter and the 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 and legal studies, argumentations and legal demonstrations have invoked this topos to structure their analyses. The letter would be a position advocating a so-called "strict" or even "literal" interpretation, as evidenced by the locutions "à la lettre" or "prendre au pied de la lettre". On the other hand, "esprit" would qualify the priority given to either the original intention or the intended purpose of the rule, at the expense of its literal formulation. But isn't this an imaginary description, inherited from common usage, rather than rigorous qualifications and analyses based on the most recent advances in the theories of interpretation and semantics in the human and social sciences?
