Document Type
Article
Publication Date
6-6-2024
Abstract
This document collects for ease of access and citation three of my posts on the New Private Law Blog, which chart the conceptual history of the interpretation-construction distinction. The posts begin with Francis Lieber’s 1939 introduction of the concepts, then describes Samual Williston’s 1920 account of the distinction in the first edition of Williston on Contracts, and concludes with Arthur Linton Corbin’s 1951 reconceptualization in the first edition of Corbin on Contracts. The posts identify two different conceptions of the distinction. Under the first (Lieber and Williston), construction supplements interpretation. Under the second (Corbin), the two activities complement one another. The complementary conception is the better one.
Scholarly Commons Citation
Klass, Gregory, "A Short History of the Interpretation-Construction Distinction" (2024). Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works. 2607.
https://scholarship.law.georgetown.edu/facpub/2607
Included in
Contracts Commons, Legal Biography Commons, Legal History Commons, Public Law and Legal Theory Commons