Legal Definition and Related Resources of Canons Of Construction

Rules of preference evolved at common law which guide in the interpretation of written documents. In Re Clarke, 174 App. Div. 736,161 N. Y.S. 484.

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Canons Of Construction in Historical Law

You might be interested in the historical meaning of this term. Browse or search for Canons Of Construction in Historical Law in the Encyclopedia of Law.

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What does Canons Of Construction mean in American Law?

The definition of Canons Of Construction in the law of the United States, as defined by the lexicographer Arthur Leff in his legal dictionary is:

Fundamental rules for the interpretation of legal writings both private and public, e.g., the doctrine of ejsdem generis. In fact, any legal system which in theory seeks to figure out the meanings attached to words by their writers, and then carry out those intentions, i.e., any system in which words are to function as anything but incantations, will find canons of construction deeply unsatisfactory. In areas of law where the writers are legal professionals, e.g., the draftsmen of most statutes and wills. One may be aided by the theory that they too knew the canons of construction and sought the meaning their application would bring, but the job commanded of the judges is still to determine what the draftsmen meant. But in situations where the writers may not even be presumed to know that canons of construction exist, it is hard, with a straight face, to find that they meant the meanings the canons would produce. Hence, modern interpretation is far less dependent upon canons of interpretation, i.e., upon a reasonably small number of rules of meaning than on a less structured attempt to figure out what these words might have meant to their users. The canons are now used, or at least ought to be, only when the language is so ambiguous and opaque as to defy understanding, but some decision has to be made. Then the fiction, of “the meaning” may have to be indulged.