Truth, hermeneutics and judicial decision
| Autor | Fernando José Armando Ribeiro |
| Ocupação do Autor | PhD; Professor of Law at PUC-Minas; Judge in the state of Minas Gerais (Brazil) |
| Páginas | 1474-1488 |
1474 • XXVI World Congress of Philosophy of Law and Social Philosophy
Fernando José Armando Ribeiro1
Abstract: Modern hermeneutics teaches us that everything that is perceived and
represented by human beings refers to a process of interpretation, and that the
world comes to mind through language. Therefore, Law depends on the herme-
neutic mediation. Without hermeneutics there is no law, only normative texts.
This paper makes use of the philosophical hermeneutics by Gadamer to inves-
tigate the limits and possibilities of judicial interpretation. The paper explores
the contribution of philosophical hermeneutics to a new model of rationality and
howcanitinuencetheapplicationofLawandnotonlylegaltheoryTherefore
we will examine some of the most important themes of the legal debate today in
Brazil and the USA. What should be the role of the judge in a democracy? What
can we understand by judicial activism and by correct interpretation? With this
theoreticalbackgroundweanalyzesomecasesalwaystryingtoshowthebeer
way to legitimize the judicial decision and the contribution that hermeneutics
and the new dimensions of language can bring to it.
Keywords: 1. Hermeneutics; Judicial decision; 3. Democracy.
1 Introduction
Law is not only what is contained in the texts of statutes and
precedents. These legal texts only set forth abstract commandments,
able to regulate interpersonal relations. Therefore, the search for law in
legal texts is fruitless if it does not consider the role of the interpreter
and the plurality of all the other norms that compose the legal system
which by themselves are the product of interpretation.
Modern hermeneutics teaches us that everything that is per-
ceived and represented by the interpreter refers to a process of interpre-
tation, and that the world comes to mind through language. If language
is already a form of interpretation, hermeneutics is inseparable from hu-
man life and, therefore, inseparable from Law.
Hence, Law depends on hermeneutic mediation. Without herme-
1
PhD; Professor of Law at PUC-Minas; Judge in the state of Minas Gerais (Brazil).
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