The multidimensional process of interpretation: content-determination and law-ascertainment distinguished

This chapter is premised on the idea that international lawyers, while trying to give meaning to legal rules (content-determination) or while engaging in the identification of rules (law-ascertainment), necessarily commit themselves to certain techniques, rhetoric and traditions that are provided by the normative universe of international law. In doing so, this chapter, drawing on the insightful metaphor at the heart of this volume, argues that the object of the game of interpretation should be seen as multi-dimensional. Playing the game of interpretation consists not only of attributing meaning to the rules (content-determination), but also of ascertaining what is and what is not law (law ascertainment).