I am not sure what "meaning" you are talking about. If you mean the document provided, I look at everything through the lens of BLD. Not that I've memorized the entire BLD, but I have read so much of it, and so much of US law in general, I understand fairly well what things mean "within the law" just on cursory examination. Not to suggest that I will necessarily catch everything, but it is always the lens through which I read.
I agree that using BLD is (generally) the best way to interpret the law (because that is how it is done in our courts), but the surrounding context of society at the time is also crucial. In this case however, the document linked to is not complicated (at least not in any obvious way) and in no way provides any link to the D.C. municipal corporation (never mentioned or alluded to) nor does it discuss US bankruptcy. On the contrary, it seems very focused on getting reparations from Britain, through Treaty, for it's complicity in damages during the Civil War.
That doesn't mean there is no connection given some larger context, but that larger context is not contained within the document itself as far as I could find.
The larger context is the United States Corporation and the British Crown renegotiated everything, including fishing rights, because the United States Corporation was a new entity.
I am not sure what "meaning" you are talking about. If you mean the document provided, I look at everything through the lens of BLD. Not that I've memorized the entire BLD, but I have read so much of it, and so much of US law in general, I understand fairly well what things mean "within the law" just on cursory examination. Not to suggest that I will necessarily catch everything, but it is always the lens through which I read.
I agree that using BLD is (generally) the best way to interpret the law (because that is how it is done in our courts), but the surrounding context of society at the time is also crucial. In this case however, the document linked to is not complicated (at least not in any obvious way) and in no way provides any link to the D.C. municipal corporation (never mentioned or alluded to) nor does it discuss US bankruptcy. On the contrary, it seems very focused on getting reparations from Britain, through Treaty, for it's complicity in damages during the Civil War.
That doesn't mean there is no connection given some larger context, but that larger context is not contained within the document itself as far as I could find.
The larger context is the United States Corporation and the British Crown renegotiated everything, including fishing rights, because the United States Corporation was a new entity.
Ground rules had to be established.