09:35 Feb 3, 2010
Garner's Dictionary of Modern Legal Usage spends a lot of time discussing and lamenting the problems with the word "shall", which include its ability to have different meanings, as you have noted. In your phrase, it seems fairly clear IMHO that it is not a simple statement of future fact that no investment decisions are going to be taken in reliance on the report, but rather it is saying that no-one will be ENTITLED to rely on the report as a basis for future investment decisions (i.e. "you will have no right to sue me if you make an investment decision relying on the contents of this report"). HTH anyway. |