Vagueness and Law: Philosophical and Legal Perspectives
Vagueness and Law: Philosophical and Legal Perspectives
Professor of Public Law and Legal Philosophy
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Abstract
Vague expressions are omnipresent in natural language. If a law contains vague terms, the question whether it applies to a particular case often lacks a clear answer. This places the law at odds with rule-of-law values. One of the fundamental pillars of the rule of law is legal certainty. The determinacy of the law enables people to use it as a guide and it puts judges in a position to decide impartially. Vagueness poses a threat to these ideals. In borderline cases, the law seems to be indeterminate and thus incapable of serving its core rule of law value. In the philosophy of language, vagueness has become one of the hottest topics of the past two decades. Linguists and philosophers have investigated what distinguishes ‘soritical’ vagueness from other kinds of linguistic indeterminacy, such as ambiguity, generality, open texture, and family resemblance concepts. The literature discusses the logical, semantic, pragmatic, and epistemic aspects of these phenomena. Legal theory has hitherto paid little attention to the differences between the various kinds of linguistic indeterminacy grouped under the heading of ‘vagueness’, let alone to the various theories that try to account for these phenomena. The volume brings together leading scholars who are working on the topic of vagueness in philosophy and in law, collecting essays in the respective fields and fostering a dialogue between philosophers and legal scholars. It depicts how philosophers conceive vagueness in law from their theoretical perspective and how legal theorists make use of philosophical theories of vagueness.
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Front Matter
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Vagueness and Law: Philosophical and Legal Perspectives
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Part I Theories of Vagueness and their Impact on Jurisprudence
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1
Philosophical and Jurisprudential Issues of Vagueness
Stephen Schiffer
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2
Vagueness in Law: Placing the Blame Where It’s Due
Diana Raffman
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3
An Intentionalist Account of Vagueness: A Legal Perspective
Ralf Poscher
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4
Can Legal Practice Adjudicate Between Theories of Vagueness?
Hrafn Asgeirsson
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5
Semantics, Metaphysics, and Objectivity in the Law
Michael S. Moore
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1
Philosophical and Jurisprudential Issues of Vagueness
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Part II Vagueness Phenomena in Law
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Part III Dealing with Vagueness in Law
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10
Why It Is So Difficult to Resolve Vagueness in Legal Interpretation
Lawrence M. Solan
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11
Vagueness and Political Choice in Law
Brian H. Bix
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12
Non-Epistemic Uncertainty and the Problem of Legal Line Drawing
Leo Katz
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13
Smoothing Vague Laws
Adam J. Kolber
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14
How Vagueness Makes Judges Lie
Roy Sorensen
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15
Clarity, Thoughtfulness, and the Rule of Law
Jeremy Waldron
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10
Why It Is So Difficult to Resolve Vagueness in Legal Interpretation
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End Matter
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