How to Do Things with Words by J.L. Austin

Being a judge on a constitutional court is like living on a frontier. The constitution is a document that sets boundaries. We may change it, there may be legislative hearings, our representatives might write a statute and if that isn’t working well, the new rule is tested through the courts to see whether it falls within the boundaries of the constitution. Some kind of rule is formed, perhaps through an administrative process. When we want change in an area like that, we start to discuss it – in schools, in associations, in newspapers, in magazine articles. Norms about privacy and how privacy relates to free expression are changing. When we have a new problem, we start with vigorous debate and discussion that can sound like clamour.įor instance, how will privacy and free expression interact in the Internet age? The village gossip would forget what was going on, but computers won’t. Law in America rises from the bottom up, it isn’t decreed from the top down. For example, he spoke of the clamour that he heard when he reached the shores of America. In the 1830s, Tocqueville looked at the newly democratic America and described it in terms that, for the most part, are applicable today. It’s a masterpiece of sociological and political analysis. Tell us about it and why it continues to resonate with you. Turning to the books, let’s begin with Democracy in America.

But when you are representing human beings or deciding things that affect them, you need to understand, as best you can, the workings of human life. You need a good head to read all those words and figure out how they apply. Why is it important for lawyers and judges to read widely? The books you’ve cited as intellectual influences are not standards of the law school curriculum. If there’s a difference in the federal law interpretation, we’ll probably hear the case and try to iron it out. It could be a major question, it could be a minor question. Or it might involve whether Guantanamo prisoners are entitled to seek habeas corpus. It might involve a comma in the Internal Revenue Code, which different courts interpret differently. A case in front of us might involve the meaning of a statute. Our job, the nine of us, is basically to create a uniform rule of law by ironing out differences. We are most likely to hear those cases where lower courts have come to different conclusions about the same question of federal law.

We work on difficult legal issues involving laws passed by Congress. So I’m going to ask a very simple question, because I know the answer is quite complex. When you took over his seat on the Supreme Court, Justice Harry Blackmun advised you, “When you have the chance, tell people what you do”. Foreign Policy & International Relations.

How to Do Things with Words by J.L. Austin