A logical architecture for dynamic legal interpretation

Abstract

The paper proposes a logical framework (based on input/output logics) for the representation of legal interpretation. It conceives interpretation by legal scholarship or judicial doctrine as a dynamic of theory change, where rules, values and meaning ascriptions are related and revised in order to reach a coherent explanation of the legal order. The logical architecture modularly combines three output relations, one for sets of regulatory rules, the other for sets of axiological rules (values) and another for sets of meaning ascriptions. Different revision operators are defined for these sets and the model aims to show that legal interpretation is a question of reaching a stability condition in this system by alternative applications of revision operators. The working of the model is illustrated by an example taken from recent Brazilian jurisprudence involving theoretical disagreement within the Supreme Court.