(University of Oregon School of Law, 2019-06-19) Landau, Jack L.
Nearly everything a lawyer, judge, businessperson, or public official does is controlled, or at the very least significantly affected, by a statute. Our legal system, as Judge Guido Calabresi colorfully put it, has become “statutorified.” That being the case, it makes sense to understand the law that governs the interpretation of statutes. The Oregon appellate courts have devoted a great deal of attention over the past twenty-five years to developing and applying a predictable set of rules of interpretation. In fact, Oregon’s development of—and, for the most part, adherence to—a set of interpretive conventions has garnered national attention.
