Washington University Law Review

Article Title

Language and Self-Interest: Preliminary Notes Towards a Public Choice Approach to Legal Language

Authors

Jonathan R. Macey, Cornell University

Publication Title

Washington University Law Quarterly

Abstract

In this Article I will give a few examples of this phenomenon in action. I will begin with a benign example, in which no damage is caused by a failure to understand the true purpose of the speaker's words. I will then move to some examples in which, it might be argued, real harm is caused by the failure to understand the true purpose of the communication. Finally, I will explain why language is used in the way I am describing in this essay.

Recommended Citation

Jonathan R. Macey, Language and Self-Interest: Preliminary Notes Towards a Public Choice Approach to Legal Language, 73 Wash. U. L. Q. 1001 (1995).
Available at: https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/law_lawreview/vol73/iss3/9