Goldfarb on Corpus Linguistics in Legal Interpretation: When Is It (In)appropriate? @NealGoldfarb

Neal Goldfarb, Georgetown University Law Center, has published Corpus Linguistics in Legal Interpretation: When Is It (In)appropriate? Here is the abstract. Corpus linguistics can be a powerful tool in legal interpretation, but like all tools, it is suited for some uses but not for others. At a minimum, that means that there are likely to be cases in which corpus data doesn’t yield any useful insights. More seriously, in some cases where the data seems useful, that appearance might prove on closer examination to be misleading. So it is important for people to be able to distinguish issues as to which corpus results are genuinely useful from those in which they are not. A big part of the motivation behind introducing corpus linguistics into legal interpretation is to increase the sophistication and quality of interpretive analysis. That purpose will be disserved corpus data is cited in support of conclusions that the data doesn’t really support. This paper is an…

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