Georgia’s Law of Rules: Textualism and a Survey of the Canons

Before a travel guide can be written, there has to be a map; before treatises can be written, there have to be surveys. This Article is a survey of Georgia textualism and every canon the Supreme Court of Georgia has recognized in its 180-year history. I begin with a general overview of textualism: the priority of plain meaning, legal context, and legal history (Part I). If there is no ambiguity, “our search for [legal] meaning is at an end.” But of course, this frequently fails to be the case, so I have read nearly 4,000 cases in search of the canons making up Georgia’s “law of rules.” Included is a catalog of the seventy or so I have identified, accompanied by brief explanations and citations.