Jusletter IT

This paper deals with semantic aspects of legal interpretation. We apply a bottom-up perspective for analysis of semantics of statutory text. Intensional and extensional aspects of statutory expressions are analyzed and presented on a diagram. It is argued that such diagram may play a role as a tool for explanation of disagreement concerning meaning of statutory terms and that it represents a typology of legal interpretive problems. It also supports the view that legal reasoning is rather constructive than reconstructive enterprise.