Interpretation

The act of finding out the true sense of any form of words — that is, the sense which their author intended to convey — and of enabling others to derive from them the same idea which the author intended to convey.

14 How. Pr. R. (N. Y.) 272.

The discovery and representation of the true meaning of any signs used to convey ideas. Lieber, Leg. & Pol. Herm. "Construction" is sometimes used as a synonym (Jones, Const, p. 3), though it has been said that "construction" is the broader The "true meaning" of any signs is that meaning which those who used them were desirous of expressing. A perspn adopting or sanctioning them ''uses" them as well as their immediate author. Both parties to an agreement equally make use of the signs deplaratory of that agreement, though one only is the originator, and the other may be entirely passive. The most common signs used to convey ideas are words. When there is a contradiction in signs intended to agree, resort must be had to construction, — that is, the drawing of conclusions from the given signs, respecting ideas which they do not express. (1) Close interpretation (interpretatio restncta) is adopted if just reasons, connected with the formation and character of the text, induce us to take the words in their narrowest meaning. This species of interpretation has generally been called "literal," but the term is inadmissible. Lieber, Leg. & Pol. Herm. 66. (2) Extensive interpretation (interpre Uvtio extensiva, called, also, "liberal interpretation") adopts a more comprehensive signification of the word. (3) Extravagant interpretation (interpretatio excedens) is that which substitutes a meaning evidently beyond the true one. It is therefore not genuine interpretation. (4) Free or unrestricted interpretation (interpretatio soluta) proceeds simply on the general principles of interpretation in good faith, not bound by any specific or superior principle (5) Limited or restricted interpretation (interpretatio limitata) is when we are influenced by other principles than the strictly hermeneutic ones. Emesti, Inst. Interp. (6) Predestined interpretation (interpretatio predestinata) takes place if the interpreter, laboring under a strong bias of mind, makes the text subservient to his preconceived views or desires. This includes artful interpretation (interpretatio vafer), by which the interpreter seeks to give a meaning to the text other than the one he knows to have been intended. The civilians divide interpretation into: (1) Authentic (interpretatio authentiea), which proceeds from the author himself. (2) Usual (interpretatio nsualis), when the interpretation is on the ground of usage. (3) Doctrinal (interpretatio doctrinalis), when made agreeably to rules of science. Doctrinal interpretation is subdivided into extensive, restrictive, and declaratory, — extensive, whenever the reason of a proposition has a broader sense than its terms, and it is consequently applied to a case which had not been explained; restrictive, when the expressions have a greater latitude than the reasons; and declaratory, when the reasons and terms agree, but it is necessary to settle the meaning of some term or terms to make the sense complete.