Truth and Method in the Domestic Application of International Human Rights Law: The Philosophy of Hans-Georg Gadamer

The author argues that international human rights scholars and advocates, unlike their domestic counterparts, have paid little attention to the role that context and culture play in shaping the meaning of a given text. This author therefore suggests that international human rights scholars should become familiar with the hermeneutic philosophy of Hans-Georg Gadamer because Gadamer expounds a theory of language that recognizes the authority of international texts while accommodating variations in interpretation between national jurisdictions or various cultures. The paper is divided into several parts. The first part provides a brief overview of the debate concerning international law's use in domestic courts in so far as the debate engages the place of culture within interpretation. The second part critiques the traditional model of interpretation assumed by proponents of the debate. The third part addresses the interpretive community model of meaning that developed in reaction to the traditional model. The fourth part turns to Gadamer's book, "Truth and Method", and explains why Gadamer's work represents a welcome alternative to both the traditional and interpretive community models. The Nigerian Court of Appeal's decision in Muojekwu v. Ejikeme, a case involving women's inheritance rights, is used throughout to ground the analysis.