Abstract

In law, interpretivism refers to a diverse family of theoretical approaches founded on the central category of meaning. It maintains that the phenomenon of law cannot adequately be grasped by imitating the methods of the natural sciences. Interpretivism covers such a broad range because law itself is widely recognized to be an interpretive practice. Given the potential range of inquiry, we offer a synthetic overview by distinguishing between three contemporary varieties of legal interpretivism: descriptivist, normativist, and phenomenological. Each postulates a particular conception of law and adopts a distinctive methodological framework. These three varieties are examined in the sections that follow and they are illustrated through analysis of the ideas of leading legal theorists working mainly within the Anglo-American tradition.