letter of the law

Syllable breakdown

Dictionary meaning

strict, literal adherence to the precise words of a legal rule, contract, or regulation without regard to the purpose the rule was intended to serve or the justice of the outcome in the specific case; following the letter of the law means doing exactly what the words require and no more, even when the result seems contrary to the spirit — the underlying intent and purpose — of the rule; the tension between letter and spirit of the law is one of the oldest problems in legal interpretation, addressed by different schools of statutory interpretation in different ways; textualists prioritise the letter, arguing that courts should enforce what the legislature actually wrote; purposivists argue that courts should interpret statutes to achieve the legislative purpose even when that requires departing from the literal text; the phrase appears in the New Testament in Paul's contrast between the letter that kills and the spirit that gives life