A good part of Brazilian authors questions the usefulness of the traditional methodic elements of law interpretation, whose importance is being rediscovered in other countries like Germany. In spite of theoretic rejection, the law applying officials continue to make use of the classical methods in practice. Interpretation itself is guided by the mental stages of these methods, although the deciding choose between them is influenced by the law appliers personal precomprehension about a fair solution of the case. Thus, the use of the four canons in forensic decisionmaking depends on the factors of rational argumentation which obeys to the "rules of art" of juristic communication. Social expectation of a strict connection between judicial decision and legal text lead to a type of interpretation which has the four traditional methodic directives as its main instruments. Even though they do not lead to scientifically true answers, one must recognize their importance for exercising juristic reasoning.
juristic interpretation; methodical elements; traditional canons; pre-comprehension; justification of decision