Reading tea leaves differently?

Abstract

This chapter discusses the use of interpretive techniques by the US Supreme Court and by the European Court of Justice in copyright cases. The method of systematic content analysis is used to code the entire body of these cases for the use of any of ten interpretive techniques (or topoi) as identified by MacCormick, Summers and Taruffo. The introductory part discusses the methods used, followed by a brief overview of the particularities of both courts as all readers are not necessarily equally familiar with the workings of both courts. The first part consists of a descriptive overview of both case law corpuses. In the second part, the rationale behind copyright law in both systems are discussed. The third and main part of the analysis consists of a presentation and discussion of the statistical analysis performed on the coding of the cases. It will be shown that both courts use six of the ten interpretive techniques similarly, and four differently: the main differences are to be found in the interpretation techniques that go back to the legislator’s intent. This leads to the conclusion that the interpretation techniques used by both courts fit the underlying, philosophical and thus substantive differences in both systems of copyright law. This insight can contribute to a better mutual understanding of the respective systems across both sides of the Atlantic.

Topics & Concepts