Professor Lawrence Solan of the Brooklyn Law School has recently published an interesting and original article on statutory interpretation in EC law. Clearly, interpreting statutes drafted in so many languages creates a number of problems. Professor Solan's approach is to find inspiration in the works of St. Augustine.
Here's what the abstract states:
EU legislation is written in all of the EU's official languages. Each version is authoritative, and no version is privileged as "the original," at least not as an official matter. The existence of a regime of multilingual legislation appears to create a daunting task for a court that must resolve disputes over a statute's applicability in a particular situation. The opportunity for inconsistencies among the various language versions is so profound that it would not be surprising if the entire system collapsed under its own weight.
But that has not happened. Whatever problems face Europe and the EU, statutory interpretation is not high on the list. On the contrary, the European Court of Justice resolves disputes among member states in what appears to be a routine manner. In this article, I argue that the proliferation of languages actually assists the interpretation of statutes by the ECJ. To the extent that the goal of the court is to construe statutes to effectuate the intent of the legislature and to further the goals of the enacted directive or regulation, the existence of so many versions of the law makes this task easier. In the manner of St. Augustine, the ECJ looks at several versions of the statute, and then triangulates. Using advances in linguistics, cognitive psychology and philosophy, I explain how this process can serve to reduce the universe of plausible interpretations, thus making statutory interpretation more faithful to the goals of the enacting legislature.
Highly recommended. You can download the article here.
Don't even bother to interpret its legality, it is Illegal under the British CFonstitution, the British Pblic must but have never been told that their Country and Sovereignty was being transferred, we were always told that there was no loss of Sovereignty, that is DECEPTION...So ANY Loss of sovereignty, any laws passed since 1972 are invalid..
http://www.brusselsjournal.com/node/865
http://thewestminsternews.co.uk/
http://www.betteroffout.co.uk/sup01.htm
http://www.betteroffout.co.uk
http://www.brugesgroup.com/
www.eutruth.org.uk
http://www.european-referendum.org.uk/101-reasons.html
http://www.britsattheirbest.com/freedom/f_your_own_choice.htm
Note how none of this has ever appeared in the Press or on the News.
Our Govt are ilegally surrendering our Country to a foreign power, placing us under the Dual repression of a Police state and
Posted by: Brit Pat | October 01, 2007 at 05:04 AM