Graduate Scholar Talk - March 5, 2020

The Law’s Audiences

Speaker: David S. Louk, PhD, JD, Columbia Law School.

Does it matter whether the methods judges use to interpret the Constitution are susceptible to public debate and scrutiny? Should we be concerned if prevailing approaches to statutory interpretation make it unlikely that most people subject to the law will be able to understand it without the assistance of a lawyer?

This talk examined prevailing approaches to American statutory and constitutional interpretation from the standpoint of how those approaches enhance or diminish the capacity for law's other audiences - including the public at large - to understand what the law means and requires of them.