  As might be expected, as a result of these different (although often intertwining) intellectual backgrounds and sources of interest in interpretation, legal theorists approach this subject with very different questions and concerns to which they give concomitantly different answers. For all this, however, a surprising number of legal theorists agree—at least at an abstract level—about one central characteristic of interpretation, namely that interpretation is a Janus-faced concept, encompassing both a backward-looking conserving component, and a forward-looking creative one. In other words, an interpretation of something is an interpretation of something—it presupposes that there is a something, or an original, there to be interpreted, and to which any valid interpretation must be faithful to some extent, thus differentiating interpretation from pure invention—but it is also an interpretation of something, i.e. an attempt not merely to reproduce but to make something of or bring something out of an original. (See e.g. Fiss 1982; Dworkin 1986; Marmor 1992 &amp; 2005; Endicott 1994; Raz 1996b &amp; 1996c.) 