Meaning
The exact written wording of a rule, as opposed to the intention behind it. The phrase is nearly always used in contrast with 'the spirit of the law', and usually with a hint of disapproval: someone obeying the letter while quietly defeating the purpose. Almost always paired with 'the spirit of the law'; invoking the letter alone signals pedantry or evasion. Regional use: General English (legal and biblical lineage).
Origin
The letter-versus-spirit contrast is biblical at root: in 2 Corinthians 3:6 Paul opposes the written code to the life-giving work of the Spirit - 'the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life' - and the legal historian Boaz Cohen traced Paul's terminology to older Greek, Roman, and Jewish traditions of distinguishing a law's wording from its purpose. English absorbed the pairing early; the American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms dates 'letter of the law' to the late 1500s. The distinction became a permanent fixture of legal argument - Shakespeare built The Merchant of Venice's trial scene around Portia's mercilessly literal reading of Shylock's bond - and of constitutional debate: the early American Federalists read the Constitution by its spirit while their rivals read it by its letter, a divide that survives in modern arguments between living-constitution and originalist judges.
Research Sources
References used to check this entry’s meaning, history, or documented forms.
Variants
- by the letter of the law
- letter and spirit
- letter of the law
Usage Examples
- The scheme was legal - the tax office conceded it broke no rule as written - but the committee's report said obeying the letter of the law while shipping profits through Dublin violated its spirit.
- Inspectors who follow the letter of the law can still fail the public; the manual tells them what to check, not why.
- He kept to the letter of the law on disclosure and still managed to tell the board nothing it needed to know.