Opinion ID: 765489
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Applicable Principles of Construction

Text: 17 Treaties are construed in much the same manner as statutes. See United States v. Alvarez-Machain, 504 U.S. 655, 663 (1992); see also Sale v. Haitian Ctrs. Council, Inc., 509 U.S. 155, 177-83 (1993). The district court's construction of the Convention, like the construction of any statute, is a matter of law which we review de novo. See Stuart v. United States, 813 F.2d 243, 246 (9th Cir. 1987), rev'd on other grounds, 489 U.S. 353 (1989); see also Koreag, Controle et Revision S.A. v. Refco F/X Assocs., Inc., 961 F.2d 341, 347-48 (2d Cir. 1992). Statutory construction is a holistic endeavor and must account for the statute's full text, language as well as punctuation, structure and subject matter. United States Nat'l Bank v. Independent Ins. Agents of Am., Inc., 508 U.S. 439, 455 (1993) (internal quotations omitted). Thus, the obvious starting point in construing a treaty is its text. See Eastern Airlines, Inc. v. Floyd, 499 U.S. 530, 534 (1991). And the plain meaning of a text will typically heed the commands of its punctuation. United States Nat'l Bank, 508 U.S at 454; see also United States v. Ron Pair Enters., Inc., 489 U.S. 235, 241-42 (1989) (holding that the grammatical structure of the statute, specifically the placement of commas, mandated a specific construction). 18 Among the rules of punctuation applied in construing statues is this: When a modifier is set off from a series of antecedents by a comma, the modifier should be read to apply to each of those antecedents. See Bingham, Ltd. v. United States, 724 F.2d 921, 925-26 n.3 (11th Cir. 1984); see also Elliott Coal Mining Co. v. Director, Office of Workers' Comp. Programs, 17 F.3d 616, 630 (3d Cir. 1994) (noting that the use of a comma to set off a modifying phrase from other clauses indicates that the qualifying language is to be applied to all of the previous phrases and not merely the immediately preceding phrase). As stated by the Eleventh Circuit, this rule is a supplementary 'rule of punctuation,' to the doctrine of the last antecedent, which states that a modifier generally applies only to the nearest, or last, antecedent. 1 See Bingham, 724 F.2d at 925-26 n.3 (citing Quindlen v. Prudential Ins. Co. of Am., 482 F.2d 876, 878 (5th Cir. 1973)). Of course, these doctrines are not absolute rules, id. at 926 n.3, and in applying them we are mindful of the Supreme Court's admonition that a purported plain-meaning analysis based only on punctuation is necessarily incomplete and runs the risk of distorting a statute's true meaning. United States Nat'l Bank, 508 U.S. at 454. 19 In addition to utilizing rules of punctuation, we are aided in our plain-meaning analysis by the fact that the Convention exists in five official languages-French, Spanish, English, Chinese, and Russian-of equal authenticity. See New York Convention art. XVI, § 1. Because one purpose of the Convention is to unify the standards under which international agreements to arbitrate are observed, Scherk v. Alberto-Culver Co., 417 U.S. 506, 520 n.15 (1973), we should, if possible, adhere to an interpretation consistent with all of the official languages. That said, some of the official languages provide more insight into the drafters' intent than others: Of the five official languages, English, French, and Spanish were the working languages of the United Nations Conference on International Commercial Arbitration, which drafted the Convention. See Rules of Procedure, U.N. Conference on Int'l Commercial Arbitration, Rule 32, E/Conf.26/5/Rev.1 (1958)(hereinafter Rules of Procedure); see also Eastern Airlines, 499 U.S. at 536 (considering language employed by drafters to gain insight into intent of parties). All records of Conference meetings were kept in these working languages. Rules of Procedure at Rule 36. 20 Finally, to the extent the drafters' intent is unclear from the text of the multiple versions of the Convention, we may turn to the Convention's legislative history for guidance. Eastern Airlines, 499 U.S. at 535 (treaty history and negotiations may be consulted in construing difficult or ambiguous treaty passages).