Emilio Betti's Legal Hermeneutics: Between a Theory of Legal Interpretation and a Hermeneutical Theory of Law

Abstract

This paper is a reevaluation of the position of the Italian jurist Emilio Betti in the tradition of the hermeneutical philosophy of law. I argue that Betti should be considered to be a part of that tradition by analysing the elements of a hermeneutical theory of law in his theory of legal interpretation and general theory of interpretation. Furthermore, I challenge the claims by Antonin Scalia in Reading Law about the novelty and originalist provenience of the canons of interpretation/construction by elaborating Betties view on basic canons of interpretation in general.