Publications

Publication details [#28471]

Devinat, Mathieu. 2014. Establishing Meaning in a Bilingual and Bijural Context: dictionary use at the Supreme Court of Canada. In Mac Aodha, Mairtin, ed. Legal Lexicography: a comparative perspective (Law, Language and Communication). London: Routledge. pp. 201–222.
Publication type
Chapter in book
Publication language
English

Abstract

In Canadian Law, the official bilingualism and the principle of equal authority elaborated in case-law and underpinned by Section 18 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms have important implications for the lexicological approach adopted by the Courts in determining ordinary meaning. Failure by the courts to examine ordinary meaning in both linguistic versions of statutes (relying on lexicographic works from both linguistic and legal traditions) gives the erroneous impression that each linguistic version of a statute exists independently of the other. The author also exposes a judicial tendency not to differentiate between legal and general dictionaries. This flawed approach, the author argues, has the sole advantage of dethroning law dictionaries and relegating them to the status of mere sources of information on meaning.
Source : Editor’s introduction