The myth of subjectivity
Identification
- Public canonical key
- doi:10.1111/j.1748-121x.1987.tb00366.x
- Authors
- David Goddard
- Reported year
- 1987
- Reported language
- en
- Source type
- journal-article
- First detected
- 2026-11-10T01:26:20.327937+00:00
- Last metadata observation
- 2026-11-10T01:26:20.328066+00:00
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Documentary abstract — original language
Lawyers place great stress on the ‘objectivity’ of the law’s approach to agreements. Humpty-Dumpty may claim that ‘when I use a word it means just what I want it to mean, no more and no less’, but a lawyer would advise Humpty that the law, should it interest itself in any promise he made, would be interested not in what he meant by what he said, but in how a reasonable man would understand that which was said. This, the lawyer would explain, is the dichotomy between the subjective and the objective interpretation of words, and it is a dichotomy which has considerable influence on lawyers’ and judges’ thought. Treitel discusses it on the first page of his text, and the very title of one of the chapters of Cheshire, Fifoot and Furmston, ‘The Phenomena of Agreement’, is derived from the law’s concern ‘not with the presence of an inward and mental assent but with its outward and visible signs.
Identifiers
- DOI
- 10.1111/j.1748-121x.1987.tb00366.x
- ISSN
- 0261-3875 · 1748-121X
Documentary context
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- Scholarship
- Source-reported types
- journal-article
- Publishers
- Cambridge University Press (CUP)
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Crossref · Record 1
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Cite this reference
David Goddard. The myth of subjectivity. 1987. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1748-121x.1987.tb00366.x
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- APA
- David Goddard. (1987). The myth of subjectivity. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1748-121x.1987.tb00366.x
- Chicago
- David Goddard. The myth of subjectivity. 1987. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1748-121x.1987.tb00366.x
- ISO 690
- David Goddard. The myth of subjectivity. 1987. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1748-121x.1987.tb00366.x
UDTR Global Rights of Nature Legal Library. The myth of subjectivity. Documentary record: https://www.declarationuniverselledesdroitsdelarbre.org/global-rights-of-nature-radar/reference/r-3d17f39cc89b8be2e61bba80857e6844/ · Last HTTP verification: not performed
Field provenance and record version
Version f3c9f3956a0468d6 · udtr-reference-1.1.2
- Title
- Crossref · source · 2026-11-10T01:26:20.328066+00:00
- Authors
- Crossref · source · 2026-11-10T01:26:20.328066+00:00
- Year
- Crossref · source · 2026-11-10T01:26:20.328066+00:00
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2b73e876913e06a0 · 2026-11-10T01:26:20.328066+00:00
849fb812a489c392 · 2026-11-10T01:26:20.328066+00:00
00c8a6940a592371 · 2026-11-10T01:26:20.328066+00:00
f3c9f3956a0468d6 · 2026-11-10T01:26:20.328066+00:00
Research dossiers and documentary relations
Source roles
Bibliographic / original publication source · https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1748-121x.1987.tb00366.x
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