Cardozo Law Review
Abstract
Arthur Jacobson is, with J. David Bleich, the author of a wonderful book on Jewish Law, along with very fine papers on difficult issues in this domain, as well as in constitutional law. As he clearly and convincingly argues, problems of interpretation are of particular difficulty and interest, when we try to understand and apply the message of a revelation as legal provisions, especially under the circumstances of the diaspora. How can the requirements given by divinity itself to mankind or to one particular people bound by a covenant give rise to controversy, conflicting understandings and even conflicting concretizations? Jacobson and Bleich develop this element at the very beginning of their book. They show that under the very specific conditions of a legal system given by a revelation set forth once and for all times in a highly incomplete and undetermined way, the relevant passages expressing normative statements will be by hypothesis open to divergent and equally valid interpretations.
Disciplines
Jurisprudence | Law
Recommended Citation
Otto Pfersmann,
Comparative Hermeneutics of Constitutional Revision Clauses and the Question of Structural Closure of Legal Systems,
40
Cardozo L. Rev.
3191
(2019).
Available at:
https://larc.cardozo.yu.edu/clr/vol40/iss7/10