[2]
The basis concerned with the letter and
the intention of the law involves a legal question as
regards the interpretation of the words, which is
identical with the question arising out of contrary
laws. Consequently some writers have asserted that
all these bases may be resolved into those concerned
with the letter and intention, while others hold that
in all cases where the letter and the intention of a
document have to be considered, it is ambiguity that
gives rise to the question at issue. But all these
bases are really distinct, for an obscure point of law
is not the same as an ambiguous point of law.
Definition, then,
Quintilian. With An English Translation. Harold Edgeworth Butler. Cambridge. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1922.
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