On The Constructive Interpretation

The concept of constructive interpretation is the contribution of Ronald Dworkin.In Law's Empire,Dworkin advanced an intrepretivist methodology systematically,which is different from the analytical jurisprudence and turn into interpretivism.As far as Dworkin is concerned, the legal reasoning is the excises of the constructive interpretation,and we could find out the nature of law by this way.The constructive interpretation is generally regarded as the main way to identify the legal rights and duties.As the start point,past political decisions are embedded in the constitutional law,statute law and legal decisions,which could be called "pre-interpretive" materials.The aim of constructive interpretation drives from the interpretive attitude,which include two parts:firstly,legal practice include not only those past political decisions,but other aims,value,principles and points,which are the end of the legal practice,and we could understand the authority materials through these values and principles.The main part of the constructive interpretation is to advance a set of principles to be the aim or point of legal practice, which must satisfy two conditions:First,it must fit the materials in the pre-interpretive materials,and could not ignore the limit of past political decision;second,it must present the best justification to the whole legal practice.In order to carry out these principles,we might modify or reinterpret the content of legal practice.In other words,the truth of legal propositions is not determined by the past decisions.As to Dworkin,the pre-interpretive materials are only the start point.The question,such as "what is truth of the legal propositions" or "what is the ground of law", must be answered by the value and principles given by the constructive interpretation.However,the course might deviate from the past decisions. As the result,the constructive interpretation tries to get the equilibrium between the pre-interpretive account and the justification.By this way,we could not only identify the true propositions,but also find out the true nature of law.