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Scheinin, Martin --- "The art and science of interpretation in human rights law" [2017] ELECD 708; in Andreassen, A. Bård; Sano, Hans-Otto; McInerney-Lankford, Siobhán (eds), "Research Methods in Human Rights" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2017) 17

Book Title: Research Methods in Human Rights

Editor(s): Andreassen, A. Bård; Sano, Hans-Otto; McInerney-Lankford, Siobhán

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781785367786

Section: Chapter 2

Section Title: The art and science of interpretation in human rights law

Author(s): Scheinin, Martin

Number of pages: 21

Abstract/Description:

This chapter addresses one of the most important questions for the methodology of human rights law, both as a social practice and as a scholarly discipline, namely how to interpret the provisions of human rights treaties, many of which are seemingly vague or open-ended as texts. The author defends the view that there is a proper methodology for legal interpretation, understood as giving specific and concrete meaning to those texts. Even if different scholars or different lawyers may sometimes end up defending differing interpretations, the interpretive activity of each of them can be assessed for the correctness of its methodology and ultimately also for the correctness of the answer arrived at.