Vagueness in Law

by Endicott, Timothy A. O.

• ISBN13: 9780198268406
• ISBN10: 0198268408
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2001-03-01
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

Vagueness in law can lead to indeterminacies in legal rights and obligations. This book responds to the challenges that those indeterminacies pose to theories of law and adjudication.

Author Biography

Timothy Endicott is Fellow in Law at Balliol College, Oxford

Table of Contents

Abbreviations	xi
Introduction	1	(6)
What is in the Book	2	(3)
What is not in the Book	5	(2)
Linguistic Indeterminacy	7	(24)
The Twilight Zone	8	(3)
Interpretive Orthodoxy and the Critical Predicament	11	(4)
Deconstruction	15	(2)
Context	17	(5)
Wittgenstein	22	(7)
Conclusion	29	(2)
Sources of Indeterminacy	31	(26)
Vagueness: Introduction	31	(2)
Imprecision	33	(4)
Open Texture	37	(1)
Incompleteness	38	(3)
Incommensurability	41	(5)
Immensurability	46	(1)
Contestability	47	(1)
Family Resemblances	47	(1)
Dummy Standards	48	(2)
Pragmatic Vagueness	50	(4)
Ambiguity	54	(1)
Beyond Words	55	(2)
Vagueness and Legal Theory	57	(20)
Legal Theories	58	(2)
Kelsen: The Norm as a Frame	60	(3)
Dworkin: The Right Answer Thesis	63	(9)
Juridical Bivalence	72	(2)
Conclusion	74	(3)
How Not to Solve the Paradox of the Heap	77	(22)
Semanticist Solutions	78	(4)
Higher-Order Vagueness	82	(2)
The Paradox of Trivalence	84	(7)
How Vague is a Vague Word?	91	(4)
No Clear Borderline Cases?	95	(2)
Conclusion: Can the Paradox be Dissolved?	97	(2)
The Epistemic Theory of Vagueness	99	(38)
The Epistemic Theory	99	(2)
Meaning and Use	101	(17)
Use as a Guide to Action	118	(8)
The Vagueness of Evaluation	126	(5)
Context Dependence and Vagueness	131	(3)
Conclusion: Putting a Price on Bivalence	134	(3)
Vagueness and Similarity	137	(22)
The Boundary Model	138	(5)
Vagueness as a Problem of Social Choice	143	(5)
Incommensurability and Boundaries	148	(7)
The Similarity Model	155	(2)
Conclusion	157	(2)
Vagueness and Interpretation	159	(26)
Hercules and the Quietest Rave	160	(3)
The Resources of the Law	163	(4)
Dworkin and Juridical Bivalence	167	(1)
Interpretation, Intention, and Understanding	167	(8)
Interpretation and Indeterminacy	175	(4)
Interpretation and Invention	179	(3)
Conclusion: The Charm of Legalism	182	(3)
The Impossibility of the Rule of Law	185	(20)
The Content of the Ideal	186	(2)
Vagueness and Arbitrary Government	188	(2)
Reconstructing the Ideal	190	(2)
Three Puzzles	192	(5)
Resolution	197	(8)
Bibliography	205	(6)
Index	211