Volume 109 Issue 2 Dickinson Review - Volume 109, 2004-2005

10-1-2004

Reason and Context: A Dual Track Theory of Interpretation

Larry A. DiMatteo

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Recommended Citation Larry A. DiMatteo, Reason and Context: A Dual Track Theory of Interpretation, 109 DICK. L. REV. 397 (2004). Available at: https://ideas.dickinsonlaw.psu.edu/dlra/vol109/iss2/2

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Reason and Context: A Dual Track Theory of Interpretation*

Larry A. DiMatteo**

I. Introduction ...... 39 8 A. Abstract Conceptualism and Contextualism ...... 402 B . R ule and C ontext ...... 403 II. Prequel: Fin D e SiE cle ...... 404 A. The Pre-Realist Critique of Conceptualism ...... 407 1. Borrowings from the Continent: European Free Law ...... 409 B. Conceptualism in American Law ...... 416 1. Systemization, Disaggregation, and Retreat ...... 420 2. Conceptualism and the Law of Contract ...... 422 a. Competing Visions of "Freedom of Contract" ...... 426 b. The U niform Sales A ct ...... 429 III. Llewellyn in the 1930s: The Intellectual Context ...... 431 A . Sociological Influences ...... 433

* This article was written as part of a doctoral thesis in conjunction with fulfilling the writing requirement for a Doctor of Philosophy at Monash University. ** Associate Professor, University of Florida, J.D., Comell Law School, LL.M., Harvard Law School. Thanks are due to the following scholars for their helpful comments during the research and writing of this Article: Morton Horwitz, Dennis Patterson, Duncan Kennedy, and Lewis Sargentich. I also would like to extend my gratitude to the discussants at the 2004 Huber Hurst Legal Research Seminar for their many helpful comments and to the co-sponsors: University of Florida's Warrington College of Business and University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business. PENN STATE LAW REVIEW [Vol. 109:2

1. Status Quo and Dynamic Contextualism: Of Sumner, Carter, and L iew ellyn ...... 4 35 B . Pre-1930 Legal W ritings ...... 440 C . C ontem poraneous W riters ...... 443 IV. Flowering of Llewellynian ...... 446 A. Fact Sensitivity and Discarding Paper Rules ...... 446 B. The Situation-Sense of Transaction-Types ...... 447 1. Llewellyn, Situation Sense, and Implied Warranties ...... 450 2. Interpretive Power of Situation-Sense ...... 451 C. Law 's Conceptual "Apparatus"...... 452 D. Indeterminacy: Rules and Counter-Rules ...... 454 E. Transaction-Types and the Dissecting of Conceptualism ...... 456 V. Contract Interpretation: U.C.C. Contextualism ...... 458 A . Trium ph of C ontextualism ...... 460 B . Form s of C ontextualism ...... 463 1. H ierarchical C ontextualism ...... 464 2. Inverted Contextualism ...... 465 3. Full C ontextualism ...... 466 C. Application of Full Contextualism ...... 471 1. Praxis: Nanakuli Paving v. Shell Oil Co., Inc ...... 471 2. Im portance to Contract Doctrine ...... 474 VI. Dual Track Theory of Interpretation ...... 476 A. The Singing Rule: Collapsing the Verticality of Principle to Rule ...... 477 B. Singing Rules and Contextualism ...... 479 C. Dual Tract Theory of Interpretation ...... 482 D. Normative Side of Dual Track Interpretation: From "Ought as Is" To "W hat M ight B e"...... 484 V II. C on clusion ...... 4 86

I. Introduction The primary objective of this article is to analyze the contextual turn' in contract interpretation during the past century. This analysis is

1. The contextualist turn in American contract law interpretation is part of a broader phenomenon popularly known as the interpretive turn in law. One definition is offered by Professor Martha Minow: "[T]he interpretive t