The paper first defines what can be called a 'critical descriptive approach', a more nuanced descriptive approach than early descriptivism in translation research. The distinctions between a 'critical descriptive approach' and 'committed approaches' (post-colonial, cultural-materialist, and feminist) are discussed. The main issue that is investigated is interpretative constraints. Taking examples of various studies, the paper shows that at a fundamental level all approaches constrain interpretation in a similar way. A further comparison of two studies indicates that interpretative constraints are not necessarily greater in a committed approach. The final issue considered is whether the critical descriptive approach has a special role to play as the "critical conscience of translation studies" (Hermans 1999:161)