The Nature of Legislative Intent: Introduction

Abstract

This introduction to my The Nature of Legislative Intent (Oxford, OUP), published in the United Kingdom in October 2012 and to be published in the United States in December 2012, introduces the problem of legislative intent and outlines the shape of the book. The chapter sketches the traditional centrality of legislative intent in legal thought and then considers the grounds of scepticism about legislative intent. The chapter concludes by outlining the structure of the book's argument that the well-formed legislative assembly forms and acts on intentions in legislating.

Keywords: legislative intent, legislation, interpretation, philosophy of law, authority, group agency