There’s more to statutory interpretation than plain language, folks.
I have a friend, a lovely fairy-like girl who is always a good source for inspiration and philosophy. She told me that when she was younger, she always used to write in pencil so she could erase if she made mistakes. But now, she always wrote in pen because she thought about her words before she wrote them down. Where was the meaning and beauty in words, she said, if you wrote them down without realizing their weight and importance?
Lawyers spend a lot of time with words. Reading them, writing them, speaking them, arguing about their meanings depending on historical use or placement relative to the nearest comma, streaming them into a logic syllogism to win an argument. I’ve never spent so much time debating about what one word means than during law school, especially through statutory interpretation in Criminal Law and Constitutional Law. Words become our life from the first day we step into the study of law. Everything becomes about how we read a statute, how we interpret each word. We must master the art of rhetoric, but also know when one concise statement will win the case. We must learn to be careful with words when speaking with clients, because legal jargon can add pain upon pain to the hardest problems of their lives.
I think lawyers could benefit from my friend’s thoughts. As we become masters of language, we must learn to channel this thunderous power into a controllable thing, something digestable - but always something that carries all of the power and emotion of the entire storm.
I found a poem scribbled on the corner of some notes from a lecture long forgotten. I don’t remember when I wrote it, but the meaning is stronger for me now than ever before.
I think I’m tiring of the words
They all resonate and repeat
And the best ones are now sounding hallow
Bringing back memories of the
Same ineffectual things
But isn’t this ironic?
Am I just mimicking sounds?
I want something powerful and heart wrenching, soul-stirring
Images and feelings that leave no room for words