The Invisible Constitution in Comparative Perspective



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The Invisible Constitution in Comparative Perspective by Rosalind Dixon (editor), Adrienne Stone (editor) (z-lib.org)

The Implicit and the Implied in a Written Constitution 

115


4.3.1.  Indexical Terms

‘Indexicals’ are expressions whose referential content is fixed by context, for 

example: ‘I’, ‘you’, ‘he’, ‘she’, ‘it’, ‘this’, ‘that’, ‘now’, ‘then’, ‘today’, ‘yesterday’, 

‘here’. If I say ‘Yesterday he hid it over there’, the words ‘yesterday’, ‘he’, ‘it’ and 

‘there’ all have semantic content, but to know when, who, what and where my 

utterance refers to, you must infer my referential intentions from contextual 

information. But my utterance does not refer to these things by implication; 

it does so expressly.

26

When a word such as ‘he’ is used in a statute or constitution – as ‘he’ 



frequently is in the Australian Constitution – its reference is almost always 

fixed by its relationship to preceding words.

27

 For example, s. 5 states: ‘The 



Governor-General may appoint such times for holding the sessions of the 

Parliament as he thinks fit’. Here, words such as ‘he’ are anaphors: they simply 

refer back to a term used previously in the text, to avoid repetition. Unless 

there is some ambiguity, their referential content is fixed by the text, and 

recourse to extra-textual evidence of the lawmakers’ intentions is unnecessary. 

Statutes and constitutions rarely use indexicals whose references are not fixed 

in that way, but they do use some.

28

4.3.2.  Relational Terms

Some words – such as citizen, alien, foreign, native, queen, mayor – function  

somewhat like indexicals. It is part of their meaning that they involve a  

relation between a person and a place, and when the place is not explicitly 

specified (as in ‘I am a citizen’) it must be fixed by context.

Section 51(xix) of the Australian Constitution gives the Commonwealth 

Parliament power to make laws with respect to ‘aliens’, but it does not explic-

itly specify the relevant place. In its context, it is clearly intended to refer 

to those who are aliens – non-subjects or non-citizens – in relation to the 

Australian community. Otherwise the Parliament could make laws about any-

one, since everyone is an ‘alien’ in relation to countries of which they are 

not citizens. Alternatively, the power could be reduced to a practical nullity, 

26 


Bach, Supra note 21, 132–3.

27 


See Sections 5, 15, 17, 33, 34, 35, 40, 46, 48, 58, 64, 72, 84, 117 and 126. I thank Patrick Emerton 

for this point.

28 

But see C.  Green, ‘“This Constitution”: Constitutional Indexicals as a Basis for Textualist 



Semi-originalism’ (2009) 84 Notre Dame Law Review 1607, who constructs an argument for 

originalism on the use of indexicals such as ‘this Constitution’, ‘now’, ‘we’ and ‘here’ in the 

American Constitution.



116 

Jeffrey Goldsworthy

if it were confined to ‘aliens’ in the science fiction sense (beings alien to  

Planet Earth).

The reference of ‘aliens’ in this context is obvious. Nevertheless, it is signifi-

cant that it is not determined solely by semantics; the dictionary definition(s) of 

‘aliens’ is consistent with the absurd alternatives just dismissed. Their absurd-

ity is revealed by contextual evidence of authorial intention, not by semantic 

convention. The obviously intended meaning is arrived at through pragmatic, 

or contextual, enrichment, even if unconsciously because it is so obvious.

29

4.3.3.  Ambiguous Terms

A word is ambiguous when it has two or more semantic meanings, in which 

case the context of its use in an utterance will usually determine which of 

those meanings was intended. Of many possible examples, consider s. 119 of 

the Australian Constitution: ‘The Commonwealth shall protect every State 

against invasion and, on the application of the Executive Government of 

the State, against domestic violence’. Today, the usual meaning of ‘domestic 

violence’ is (something like) ‘violence within the home, especially spousal 

and partner violence’. But in this case the context – textual and historical – 

establishes that the words mean (something like) ‘local rioting or rebellion’. 

The textual context consists of the link between ‘domestic violence’ and ‘the 

protection of every State’, as well as the term ‘invasion’. The historical context 

includes the accepted meaning of the words in the late nineteenth century, 

when the Constitution was enacted, and their derivation from a similar clause 

in the American Constitution (Article IV, s 4) whose meaning was well known 

at the time. All this is relevant because it is evidence of authorial intention.


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