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Liberal construction
In legal terms, construction refers to the interpretation of a document, or a phrase contained therein. Even though legal terminology must be extremely precise in terms of meaning (which is the major reason that legal documents often contain many large and obscure words and phrases, and can at times be redundant), there are times and situations in which the exact meaning of a statute or contract is not completely clear. There are also instances in which statutes have been made deliberately vague, or open to interpretation.
A case in point is the U.S. Constitution. The Framers realized that society would change in ways they could not possibly have foreseen, and that the laws of their day may not be adequate for future generations and conditions they may be expected to face. Therefore, the Framers - most of whom were learned jurists themselves - created what they hoped would be a set of laws strong enough to stand the test of time while offering some room for reinterpretation when necessary,
Right now, the power of the executive branch (the Presidency) has become a major bone of contention in the U.S. government. The Office of the President has claimed extraordinary powers since 2001 - powers that are not explicitly granted in the Constitution.
However, there are elements in the Congress and the current Supreme Court who are taking a liberal constructionist position, meaning they are taking current circumstances into consideration and guessing at what the actual purpose of certain passages of the Constitution are. They argue that certain Articles implicitly grant the President authority to assume such powers.
On the other side are the strict constructionists. They argue that the President must not assume any powers not explicitly granted by the Constitution.
The doctrines of liberal and strict construction are also regularly applied to other federal legislation as well as state and community statutes.