Vagueness in Law

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.

Timothy Endicott is Fellow in Law at Balliol College, Oxford

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

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Summary

Author Biography

Table of Contents

Supplemental Materials