Classical Canons. Rhetoric, classicism, and treaty interpretation.

First Edition. xii, 340 pp; 3 figs. Original cloth. Near Fine, in near fine dust jacket. Applied Legal Philosophy series. 'Law and jurisprudence continue to face the enduring questions: where do the special rules used to interpret legal texts come from and why do they remain significant today? This volume examines the intellectual history of canons of interpretation, particularly in regard to international agreements and signposts conclusions as to their origin, the methods of transmission to the modern-day and their continued influence and controversy. Proceeding in approximate chronological narrative, the book looks at how the classical traditions of canons developed, how it was received in the early-Modern period in Europe and England (and in Revolutionary America) and how it is applied today. Paralleling the historic exposition, it also examines treaty interpretation in antiquity, the work of such publicists as Grotius and Pufendorf, the codification of rules of treaty construction and the practical application of these rules by the current U.S. Supreme Court' (Ashgate Web site). Contents: Antiquity: Classical rhetoric and declamation; Stasis and questions of legal interpretation; Treaty making and interpretation in classical antiquity; Roman legal science; Ius interpretandi and constitutio legitima. Intermezzo: Transmission of the classical tradition of legal interpretation; Grotius and his followers on treaty construction; The Anglo-American reception. Modernity: Canons of statutory interpretation today; The development of modern rules of treaty interpretation; A primer on modern American treaty interpretation; Treaty readings by the Rehnquist court; New canons for treaty construction. Coda: The uses and abuses of classicism in law; Index. '.it is.very welcome to read a book of this kind, which traces features of modern law back into the classical world' (Mountbatten Journal of Legal Studies).…