eprintid: 46
rev_number: 9
eprint_status: archive
userid: 25
dir: disk0/00/00/00/46
datestamp: 2011-02-15 15:32:19
lastmod: 2011-07-11 14:32:25
status_changed: 2011-02-15 15:32:19
type: monograph
metadata_visibility: show
contact_email: james.melton@imtlucca.it
item_issues_count: 0
creators_name: Melton, James
creators_name: Elkins, Zachary
creators_name: Ginsburg, Tom
creators_id: james.melton@imtlucca.it
creators_id: 
creators_id: 
title: On the Interpretability of Law: Lessons from the Decoding of National Constitutions
ispublished: pub
subjects: JA
subjects: K1
divisions: EIC
full_text_status: none
monograph_type: working_paper
abstract: A critical component of law is the ease by which experts and lay persons can understand it. If a law is unclear, it is unlikely to generate compliance and enforcement. Using data from a project conceived to understand the content of national constitutions, we assess the effect of contextual, textual, and interpreter characteristics on the interpretability of constitutional documents. We find that constitutions do vary in their degree of clarity. However, contextual barriers do not seem to matter: constitutions written in bygone eras, in different languages, or in far different cultural milieus are no less interpretable by readers than are those written in closer temporal and cultural proximity. On the other hand, several textual characteristics do have a sizable impact on interpretability, a result that emphasizes the important role that constitutional drafters play in the implementation of their product.
date: 2010-11
date_type: published
publisher: Political Concepts, Committee on Concepts and Methods Working Paper Series
id_number: 44
official_url: http://www.concepts-methods.org/Files/WorkingPaper/PC_44_Melkinsburg.pdf
citation:   Melton, James and Elkins, Zachary and Ginsburg, Tom  On the Interpretability of Law: Lessons from the Decoding of National Constitutions.  Working Paper   Political Concepts, Committee on Concepts and Methods Working Paper Series