In this thesis, I present two case studies and address the issue of interpreting ambiguous meaning and vagueness in the law. In a globalized society of dramatic transformations, these ambiguous and vague expressions should be brought up and examined closely so as to establish a linguistic framework for statutory interpretation to be applied by jurists tasked with interpreting such ambiguous words and vague phrases.
This study is organized into five parts. In the first part, I state the research purpose and methods. In the second part, I first define “vagueness” and “ambiguity” in the law, then exemplify the main textual types of the law, which require precision in the wording to prevent difference in legal effects. Next, I investigate the origin and purpose of statutory interpretation, and lastly review how jurists apply textualism and supplementary methods to interpret meaning. In the third part, I present several linguistic theories which can be applicable to determining the meaning of ambiguous or vague terms in a legal context. The fourth part is devoted to the interpretation of the key words “recording” and “distribution” as well as translated business measures submitted by both parties in WTO Dispute Settlement Case 363 regarding the importation of audiovisual materials from the USA to China. In the fifth part, I investigate how the key phrase “the best interests of the child” in Article 1055-1 has been interpreted in recent judgements made by the Kaohsiung Juvenile and Family Court, as well as the extent to which the phrase “traditions, culture, and values of different ethnic groups” has been taken into consideration by the Family Court.
The WTO Appellate Body might have gained numerous insights had they considered such a linguistic approach. In litigation cases involving child custody rights, re-examination of the wording of a statutory text from the linguistic viewpoint can enhance one’s understanding of its meaning. The results demonstrate that in addition to traditional interpretive canons devised and introduced from the West in the past century, a linguistic approach provides a valuable perspective for interpreting legal language, helps to ensure that the wording of a legal discourse meets the requirement of precision in the law, and can be fruitfully applied when making revisions of statutory texts in the future.
Abstract i
1. Introduction p.1
1.1 Purpose of Study p.1
1.2 Research Methodology p.3
1.3 Outline of Study p.6
2. Interpreting Meaning from the Perspective of Jurisprudence p.8
2.1 Defining Ambiguity and Vagueness in the Legal Discourse p.8
2.1.1 Types of Ambiguity p.8
2.1.2 Three Cases of Ambiguity p.9
2.1.3 Vagueness in Daily Expressions p.12
2.1.4 Vagueness in the Language of Law p.13
2.1.5 Vagueness as an intentional act p.15
2.1.6 Vagueness as a form of negligence p.17
2.1.7 Vagueness as an unpredicted act p.18
2.1.8 Vagueness Doctrine p.21
2.2 Textual Types in the Legal Discourse p.22
2.2.1 Strict Legal Texts p.22
2.2.2 Quasi Legal Texts p.27
2.3 Statutory Interpretation: An Overview p.33
2.4 Textualism as the Primary Canon p.39
2.5 Supplementary Interpretive Methods p.43
2.6 Summary p.46
3. Interpreting Meaning from the Linguistic Perspective p.47
3.1 Some Preliminaries on Linguistics p.47
3.2 Analyzing Adjective-Noun Combinations p.50
3.3 Odgen & Richards’ Semantic Triangle Theory p.51
3.4 Chomsky’s Syntactic Phrase Structure Theory p.56
3.5 Fillmore’s Frame Semantics Theory p.60
3.6 Lyon’s Semantic Field Theory p.62
3.7 Summary p.63
4. WTO Dispute Settlement Case 363 p.65
4.1 Background and Review of the Case p.65
4.2 Interpretation of the Appellate Body p.71
4.3 Ambiguity in the Two Disputed Words p.74
4.4 Ambiguity in the Translated Trade Measures p.76
4.5 Summary p.81
5. Article 105 Section 1 in the Family Chapter of the ROC Civil Code p.82
5.1 Background and Revision of the Provisions Relating to “the Best Interests of the Child” p.82
5.2 The Ministry of Justice Guidelines for Interpreting “the Best Interests of the Child” p.87
5.3. Factors Considered in Determining Child Custody in Practice p.88
5.4 Analysis from the Linguistic Point of View p.98
5.4.1 The Term “the Best Interests of the Child” p.98
5.4.2 The Common Phrase “Traditions, Culture, and Values of Different Ethnic Groups” p.100
5.5 Summary p.105
6. Conclusion p.107
References p. 110
Appendix p. 115

Tables and Figures
Table 3.3.1. Comparison of French Law Hypothèque and English Law Mortgage p.53
Table 3.2. Lexical items within the same semantic field p.61
Table 4.3.1. The semantic field of “recording” added to the previous chart…p.73
Table 4.4.1. Audiovisual Products Regulation Article 27…p.73
Table 4.4.2. Film Regulation Article 30 p.77
Table 5.3.1. Who gets the custodian right p.87
Table 5.3.2. Foreign litigants involved in child custody cases p.88
Table 5.3.3. Descriptive statistics of the factors determining custody p.89
Table 6.1. Ambiguity and Vagueness in the Law p.105
Figure 2.1.2.1. Dressed & Eviscerated Chicken stands between two classes of commercial goods and therefore becomes ambiguous p.13
Figure 2.2.1.1 Hierarchy of the ROC law with the Constitution on the top p.25
Figure 2.2.1.2. Statutes codified in the ROC Civil Law p.26
Figure 2.5.1. Traditional interpretive canons p.44
Figure 3.3.1. Example of a semantic triangle p.50
Figure 3.3.2. Near equivalence p.52
Figure 3.3.3. Partial equivalence p.53
Figure 3.4.1. Sample diagram in Chomsky’s theory of generative grammar: “The man hit the ball p.54
Figure 3.4.2. Phrasal structure for "the court shall revoke the sentence of probation and sentence the defendant to not less than one third of the original sentence." P.57
Figure 3.5.1. Frame relations around the transfer of commercial goods p.59
Figure 4.1. WTO Law as a subset of international law p.63
Figure 4.1.1. Phrasal structure no.1 for the sentence of “no entity or individual may operate the importation of finished audiovisual products without being designated p.76
Figure 4.1.2. Phrasal structure no.2 for the sentence of “no entity or individual may operate the importation of finished audiovisual products without being designated p.76
Figure 4.2.1. China’s GATS Schedule p.70
Figure 4.3.1 Dressed & Eviscerated Chicken stands between two classes of commercial goods and therefore becomes ambiguous p.76
Figure 5.3.1. Child custody judgments by the Kaohsiung Juvenile and Family Court p.87
Figure 5.3.2. A pie chart look at child custody judgments by the Kaohsiung Juvenile and Family Court p.88
Figure 5.3.3. Custody judgments in 2017 p.89
Figure 5.3.4. Custody judgments in 2016 p.90
Figure 5.3.5. Custody judgments in 2015 p.90
Figure 5.3.6. Number of child custody cases involving foreign litigants between 2015 Oct. and 2017 Oct. 1 p.92
Figure 5.3.7. Proportion of child custody cases involving foreign litigants p.92
Figure 5.4.2.1. A semantic triangle for the concept “Custom” p.98
Figure 5.4.2.2. A semantic triangle for the concept “Value” p.98
Figure 5.5.1. Vague core meaning of “The Best Interests of the Child” with a restricted extension from the list of factors in Article 1055, Section 1 and the interpreting guidelines prescribed by the Ministry of Justice p.102
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Online Resources
Child Rights International Network https://www.crin.org/en/home/rights/convention
Law and Regulations Retrieval System 全國法規資料庫 http://law.moj.gov.tw/Index.aspx
Judicial Information Retrieval System 法學資料檢索系統http://jirs.judicial.gov.tw/Index.htm
World Trade Organization Offical Website https://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/dispu_e/cases_e/ds363_e.htm