textualism

Textualism is a popular way to interpret laws today. As I understand it, the approach assumes you can apply standard dictionary meanings and rules of English grammar to determine the meaning of a statute. One difficulty I have with the approach is that, when people write laws, they strive for a level of precision that goes beyond the normal, every-day situations where English usually operates. For example, consider this gem, 11 U.S.C. § 547(c) (2000), which you can get by searching GPOAccess. (I haven't provided a direct link because I'm not confident it would stay stable). It's part of the federal bankruptcy code:

(c) The trustee may not avoid under this section a transfer--
        (1) to the extent that such transfer was--
            (A) intended by the debtor and the creditor to
        or for whose benefit such transfer was made to be 
        a contemporaneous exchange for new value given to 
        the debtor; and
            (B) in fact a substantially contemporaneous 
        exchange;

        (2) to the extent that such transfer was--
            (A) in payment of a debt incurred by the debtor 
        in the ordinary course of business or financial 
        affairs of the debtor and the transferee;
            (B) made in the ordinary course of business or 
        financial affairs of the debtor and the transferee; 
        and
            (C) made according to ordinary business terms;

        (3) that creates a security interest in property 
        acquired by the debtor--
            (A) to the extent such security interest secures 
        new value that was--
                (i) given at or after the signing of a 
            security agreement that contains a description of 
            such property as collateral;
                (ii) given by or on behalf of the secured 
            party under such agreement;
                (iii) given to enable the debtor to acquire 
            such property; and
                (iv) in fact used by the debtor to acquire 
            such property; and

            (B) that is perfected on or before 20 days after 
        the debtor receives possession of such property;

        (4) to or for the benefit of a creditor, to the 
    extent that, after such transfer, such creditor gave new 
    value to or for the benefit of the debtor--
            (A) not secured by an otherwise unavoidable 
        security interest; and
            (B) on account of which new value the debtor did 
        not make an otherwise unavoidable transfer to or for 
        the benefit of such creditor;

        (5) that creates a perfected security interest in 
    inventory or a receivable or the proceeds of either, 
    except to the extent that the aggregate of all such 
    transfers to the transferee caused a reduction, as of the 
    date of the filing of the petition and to the prejudice 
    of other creditors holding unsecured claims, of any amount 
    by which the debt secured by such security interest 
    exceeded the value of all security interests for such debt 
    on the later of--
            (A)(i) with respect to a transfer to which 
        subsection (b)(4)(A) of this section applies, 90 days 
        before the date of the filing of the petition; or
                (ii) with respect to a transfer to which 
            subsection (b)(4)(B) of this section applies, one 
            year before the date of the filing of the petition; 
            or
            (B) the date on which new value was first given 
        under the security agreement creating such security 
        interest;

        (6) that is the fixing of a statutory lien that is 
    not avoidable under section 545 of this title;

        (7) to the extent such transfer was a bona fide payment 
    of a debt to a spouse, former spouse, or child of the 
    debtor, for alimony to, maintenance for, or support of such 
    spouse or child, in connection with a separation agreement, 
    divorce decree or other order of a court of record, 
    determination made in accordance with State or territorial 
    law by a governmental unit, or property settlement 
    agreement, but not to the extent that such debt--
            (A) is assigned to another entity, voluntarily, by 
        operation of law, or otherwise; or
            (B) includes a liability designated as alimony, 
        maintenance, or support, unless such liability is 
        actually in the nature of alimony, maintenance or 
        support; or

        (8) if, in a case filed by an individual debtor whose 
    debts are primarily consumer debts, the aggregate value of 
    all property that constitutes or is affected by such transfer 
    is less than $600.

Eyes glazed yet? Notice that that entire block of text is all one sentence. which in itself means it's broken a normal rule of good writing and limiting sentence lengths. It seems odd to expect that anything written this way conforms to the normal conventions of English writing. It resembles English, but once you get below the surface, you're in a different world.