The book challenges all formalist accounts of legal interpretation and offers an 'informal' alternative.

Allan C. Hutchinson is Distinguished Research Professor at Osgoode Hall Law School, York University, Toronto.

1. An informal opening; 2. Among the formalist ghosts; 3. Walking softly: the positivist contribution; 4. Walking with purpose: a naturalist turn; 5. Back to the future: an originalist gambit; 6. A hard line: further positivist efforts; 7. Crossing over: the anti-formalist critique; 8. Moving on: an ideological inquiry; 9. Law and ideology: the informalist approach; 10. Looking for the informal judge.