spirit of the law

Syllable breakdown

Dictionary meaning

the underlying purpose, intent, and values that a legal rule or regulation was designed to serve, as distinguished from its literal textual meaning, and invoked as a guide to interpretation when strict adherence to the exact wording would produce outcomes contrary to the law's evident purpose; courts regularly employ purposive or teleological interpretation to give effect to the spirit rather than merely the letter of statutes, particularly when legislative language is ambiguous, outdated, or produces unintended consequences when applied to unforeseen circumstances; the tension between letter and spirit is a perennial feature of legal interpretation reflecting the impossibility of anticipating all situations through language alone