- 52 - discussed supra note 9 and accompanying text. Ordinarily, in statutes and other legal documents, it is presumed that if the drafter uses the same terminology in several places then the drafter intends the same meaning in each such place. By the same token it is presumed that if the drafter varies the terminology then the drafter intends that the meaning also varies. Or, as Dickerson put it in the Interpretation and Application of Statutes 224 (1975), it is presumed that the drafter “has committed neither ‘elegant variation’ nor ‘utraquistic subterfuge’.” A problem with the “expressio unius” rule is that, although the rule tells us that a different meaning is probably intended, it often is difficult to determine what that different meaning is. See, e.g., Black’s Law Dictionary 602 (7th ed. 1999). The instant cases illustrate how the party that invokes this rule can find that the rule favors the other side. See, e.g., Ginsburg, “Making Tax Law Through the Judicial Process,” 70 A.B.A.J. 74, 76 (1984). In general, section 936(h) deals with the treatment of intangible property income. It provides that the domestic shareholders of a qualified domestic corporation which elects the possession tax credit are required to include in their gross income as of the close of the electing corporation’s tax year their pro rata share of the possessions corporation’s intangiblePage: Previous 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 Next
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